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Linking Callous-Unemotional Traits to Instrumental and Non-Instrumental Forms of Aggression

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Abstract

The current study investigated the relation of callous-unemotional (CU) traits to bullying, victimization, and proactive and reactive aggression. We also examined whether CU traits will be more strongly related to groups of children exhibiting combined or pure forms of proactive and reactive aggression and combined or pure forms of bullying and victimization. The findings suggested that the presence of CU traits, which consists of three dimensions of behavior, uncaring, callousness, and unemotional, may designate important subgroups of aggressive children. Evidence suggested that the adolescents characterized by higher levels of CU traits were more likely to exhibit combined proactive and reactive aggression in comparison to pure forms of proactive or reactive aggression. Additionally, bullies scored higher on the uncaring dimension, and bully-victims (adolescents exhibiting both bullying and victimization) scored higher on the callous dimension. In contrast, victims of bullying scored lower on the uncaring dimension of behavior.

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Notes

  1. These multinomial regression analyses required the formation of groups. While such analyses are very helpful for making person-centered interpretations (e.g., describing how youth who both bully and are victims differ from pure groups), there can be a loss of power due to the dichotomization of continuous variables. Thus, we also conducted a number of hierarchical linear regression analyses with the ICU total scale and the subscales as the outcomes and we tested the main and interactive effects of (a) bullying and victimization and (b) proactive and reactive aggression. In all the analyses we controlled for demographics in step 1 and in step 2 we entered main effects of bullying and victimization or proactive and reactive aggression. In step 3 we included the interaction between bullying and victimization or between proactive and reactive aggression. The findings were consistent with the multinomial regressions reported. Specifically, bullying and victimization significantly predicted the ICU total scale and the uncaring subscale. The bullying variable was also significantly related to the callous subscale. The interactions suggested that adolescents, who scored high in bullying, no matter their levels of victimization, were characterized by high CU traits and also score high on the callous subscale. Children who scored high in bullying, but low in victimization scored higher on the uncaring subscale in comparison to everybody else. In terms of proactive and reactive aggression, only proactive aggression was positively related to the ICU total scale and the uncaring subscale. Both proactive and reactive aggression were related to the callous subscale. The interactions suggested that adolescents, who scored high in proactive aggression, irrespective of their levels of reactive aggression, were characterized by high CU traits and they scored high on the callous subscale.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Cyprus, P.O. Box 20537, Nicosia, CY, 1678, Cyprus

    Kostas A. Fanti

  2. Department of Psychology, University of New Orleans, New Orleans, USA

    Paul J. Frick

  3. Department of Psychology, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus

    Stelios Georgiou

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  1. Kostas A. Fanti
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  2. Paul J. Frick
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  3. Stelios Georgiou
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Correspondence to Kostas A. Fanti.

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Fanti, K.A., Frick, P.J. & Georgiou, S. Linking Callous-Unemotional Traits to Instrumental and Non-Instrumental Forms of Aggression. J Psychopathol Behav Assess 31, 285–298 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-008-9111-3

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