The Moderating Role of Maternal CU Traits in the Stability of Justice-Involved Adolescents' CU Traits

• NCJ Number: 305559
• Journal: Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology Volume: 53 Issue: 4 Dated: 2024 Pages: 562–576
• Author(s): Caitlin Cavanagh; Cortney Simmons; Roberta L. O'Malley; Paul J. Frick; Laurence Steinberg; Elizabeth Cauffman
• Date Published: April 2022
• Length: 15 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2020-JX-FX-0001
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored; OJJDP-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Award: Delinquency and Crime from Adolescence Through Young Adulthood: The Crossroads Study

Annotation

This study investigated the moderating role of maternal callous-unemotional (CU) traits on developmental changes in youth CU traits.

Abstract

Objective
Callous-unemotional (CU) traits are associated with chronic and severe antisocial behavior. Although previous research has found that parents play an important role in the etiology and maintenance of youth CU traits, little research has examined the extent that parents’ own CU traits impact the stability of their children’s CU traits. The present study investigated the moderating role of maternal CU traits on developmental changes in youth CU traits

Method
A sample of 346 mother-son dyads, in which all youth were justice-involved males (M_age = 15.81; 57.80% Latino, 20.52% White, 18.21% Black, 3.47% other race/ethnicity), across three states (California, Louisiana, and Pennsylvania) completed a semi-structured interview.

Results
Youth exhibited a decrease in CU traits over 30 months. Mothers’ CU traits moderated this relation, such that high maternal CU traits were associated with a smaller decrease in CU traits than low or average maternal CU traits, both when considering youth CU traits continuously and using a clinically significant cut score. The findings remained for continuous CU traits even after accounting for environmental factors (i.e., maternal warmth, maternal hostility, victimization, and witnessing violence), and these environmental factors did not vary over time.

Conclusion
The results highlight the importance of maternal influence in understanding how youth CU traits change over time, and have important implications for the use of parenting and family-level interventions among justice-involved youth.

(Publisher abstract provided)