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Attentional orienting to emotional faces moderates the association between callous-unemotional traits and peer-nominated aggression in young adolescent school children
Ciucci, Enrica Kimonis, Eva R. Frick, Paul Righi, Stefania Baroncelli, Andrea Tambasco, Giovanna Facci, Carolina
Ciucci, Enrica
Kimonis, Eva R.
Frick, Paul
Righi, Stefania
Baroncelli, Andrea
Tambasco, Giovanna
Facci, Carolina
Abstract
Callous-unemotional (CU) traits are associated with aggressive behavior but preliminary research suggests this relationship is modified by patterns of emotional processing. This study examined whether attentional orienting to emotional faces moderated the association between CU traits and peer-nominated aggression in 251 middle school students (53% females, mean age = 13.24 years, SD = 0.73). Attentional orienting was assessed using an emotional faces (i.e., angry, fearful, happy, sad, and neutral) variant of the dotprobe task. Students also completed a self-report measure of CU traits and their classmates made peer nominations of aggression. Logistic regression analyses showed that peernominated aggression was positively related to CU traits at low levels of attentional orienting to angry faces, whereas aggression was unrelated to CU traits at high levels of attentional orienting to angry faces. That is, peer-nominated aggression was greatest for youth high on CU traits who were not engaged by angry faces. These findings support the importance of considering different patterns of emotional responding when studying the association between CU traits and aggressive behavior in youth.
Keywords
Date
2018
Type
Journal article
Journal
Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology
Book
Volume
46
Issue
5
Page Range
1011-1019
Article Number
ACU Department
Institute for Learning Sciences and Teacher Education (ILSTE)
Faculty of Education and Arts
Faculty of Education and Arts
Relation URI
Source URL
Event URL
Open Access Status
License
File Access
Controlled