The Developmental Trajectory Of The Callous-unemotional Trait And Its Relationship To Parenting Stress And Parenting Behavior

Background:Callous-unemotional(CU)traits refer to a personality pattern characterized by affective features,including lack of empathy and guilt,affection shallow and uncaring other's feelings.In the Fifth Edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual ofMental Disorders,CU traits have been added as a specifier for subtyping conduct disorder,designating a subtype with more severe antisocial behaviors.Although some studies found the relative developmental stability of CU traits,some studies suggested the developmental of CU traits have individual variabilities and change over time.Therefore,it remains unclear whether CU traits would be stable during childhoodPurposes:This study aimed to investigate the developmental trajectories of CU traits during childhood.Also,the current study also examined the associations between CU traits trajectories and parenting distress and parenting behaviorsMethods:Data was collected from a primary school in Guangdong.Mothers completed questionnaires to report her parenting distress and parenting behaviors,and assess CU traits on the child using the Callous-Unemotional subscale from the Child Problematic Traits Inventory Growth mixture modeling would be conducted to examine the developmental trajectories of CU traits in Chinese community children(N=348,47.4%male).Moreover,multinomial logistics regression and univariate ANOVA were also conducted to investigate the relationships between latent class of CU traits trajectories and parenting distress,parenting behaviorsResults and Discussion:Three developmental trajectories were identified on CU traits during childhood,including high and increasing,moderate,low and decreasing.The majority of children followed a stable-low trajectory of CU traits while a small group of children followed a stable-high and increased trajectory of CU traits.Mothers of children exhibiting higher level and increasing CU traits might experience greater level of parenting distress and show more negative parenting behaviors.By contrast,positive parenting behaviors might be as a protective factor for the development of CU traits.These findings might advance the understanding of the developmental trajectories of CU traits in Chinese community children.Besides,the findings on the associations between CU traits trajectories and parenting distress and parenting behaviors might provide some implications for future studies and clinical treatments.