ArticleJournal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines2018
Maternal sensitivity to distress, attachment and the development of callous-unemotional traits in young children.
Article in Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
28 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Parenting Characteristics and Callous-Unemotional Traits in Children Aged 0-6 Years: A Systematic Narrative Review.Child psychiatry and human development · 2025Pooled it
- Maternal emotional intelligence and negative parenting affect are independently associated with callous-unemotional traits in preschoolers.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2023Trial
- Callous-Unemotional Traits as an Intervention Target and Moderator of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy-Emotion Development Treatment for Preschool Depression and Conduct Problems.Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry · 2021Trial
- Validation of the Clinical Assessment of Prosocial Emotions (CAPE) and Subtype Differentiation of Callous-Unemotional Traits in Children and Adolescents: A Study Protocol.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Did Your Mum Not Hug You Enough? The Effects of Attachment Experience and Callous-Unemotional Traits on Catcalling Behavior in Men.Violence against women · 2026Article
- Prenatal exposure to SARS-CoV-2, early relational health, and child socio-emotional functioning in the first 6 months.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Characterising Maternal Sensitivity in a High Risk, Peri-urban LMIC Context: The Drakenstein Child Health Study.Child psychiatry and human development · 2026Article
- ABC's active ingredients: Parent coaches' in vivo feedback predicts maternal sensitivity among low-income predominantly Latina mothers.Infant mental health journal · 2026Article
- Identifying vulnerable mother-infant dyads: a psychometric evaluation of two observational coding systems using varying interaction periods.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Pregnant women's autonomic responses to an infant cry predict young infants' behavioral avoidance during the still-face paradigm.Developmental psychology · 2023Article
- Adolescent affective psychopathic traits: the long-term outcomes of mother-infant attachment across 14 years.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2023Article
- Factor Structure of the Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire in a US-Based Cohort of Mothers.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2023Article
- Warmth and reciprocity with mothers, and young children's resilience to exposure to community violence in Colombia: findings from the La Sabana Parent-Child Study.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2023Article
- Cross-cultural differences in early caregiving: levels of mind-mindedness and instruction in UK and India.Frontiers in child and adolescent psychiatry · 2023Article
- Gender differences in brain response to infant emotional faces.BMC neuroscience · 2022Article
- Fine particulate matter and depressive symptoms in children: A mediation model of physical activity and a moderation model of family poverty.SSM - population health · 2022Article
- Early life adoption shows rearing environment supersedes transgenerational effects of paternal stress on aggressive temperament in the offspring.Translational psychiatry · 2021Article
- Dimensions of the language environment in infancy and symptoms of psychopathology in toddlerhood.Developmental science · 2021Article
- Parental positive regard and expressed emotion-prediction of developing attention deficit, oppositional and callous unemotional problems between preschool and school age.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2021Article
- Exploring the Perspectives of South African Parents and Primary Caregivers Living in Low-Income Communities on What Children Need to Thrive within the First 1000 Days of Life.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundCallous-unemotional (CU) traits are characterized by a lack of responsiveness to the emotions of others, particularly negative emotions. A parenting environment where the child's own distress emotions are sensitively responded to may help foster the child's ability to respond to the emotions of others. We tested whether maternal sensitivity to distress, and other parenting characteristics, were associated with CU traits over the preschool period, and examined whether this was mediated via infant attachment status.
methodIn an epidemiological cohort, CU traits were assessed at age 2.5, 3.5, and 5.0 years by mother report. Dimensions of parenting were assessed in free play at age 29 weeks in a stratified subsample of 272, and attachment status at 14 months (n = 265). Structural equation modelling with maximum likelihood estimation was used to examine predictions from parenting dimensions and attachment status.
resultsA parenting factor comprised of sensitivity to distress (n = 207), sensitivity to non-distress, positive regard toward the infant (or warmth), and intrusiveness, predicted child CU traits (p = .023). This effect was accounted for mainly by sensitivity to distress (p = .008) and positive regard (p = .023) which showed a synergistic effect as evidenced by a significant interaction (p = .01). This arose because the combination of low sensitivity to distress and low positive regard created the risk for elevated CU traits. Although sensitivity and positive regard predicted attachment security and disorganization, there were no associations between attachment status and CU traits.
conclusionsThe finding of contributions from both sensitivity to distress and positive regard to reduced CU traits suggests that children's responsiveness to others' emotions may be increased by their own mothers' responsiveness to them and their mothers' warmth. There was no evidence that this was mediated via attachment status. Implications for intervention and future directions are discussed.
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