ArticlePsychological medicine2021
Fearlessness and low social affiliation as unique developmental precursors of callous-unemotional behaviors in preschoolers.
Article in Psychological medicine, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers.
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Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 51 citations in OpenAlex.
- Identifying prospective temperament predictors of callous-unemotional traits using machine learning.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2026Article
- Using Machine Learning to Identify Infant and Child Environmental and Biological Predictors of Callous-Unemotional Traits.Research on child and adolescent psychopathology · 2026Article
- Primary and Secondary Callous-Unemotional Childhood Variants in a Korean Community Sample.Child psychiatry and human development · 2025Article
- Social Affiliation and Attention to Angry Faces in Children: Evidence for the Contributing Role of Parental Sensory Processing Sensitivity.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Heterogeneity of early-onset conduct problems: assessing different profiles, predictors and outcomes across childhood.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2025Article
- Evaluating the sensitivity to threat and affiliative reward (STAR) model in relation to the development of conduct problems and callous-unemotional traits across early adolescence.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2024Article
- Objective Linguistic Markers Associated with Callous-Unemotional Traits in Early Childhood.Research on child and adolescent psychopathology · 2024Article
- Why Should I? Examining How Childhood Callous-Unemotional Traits Relate to Prosocial and Affiliative Behaviors and Motivations.Research on child and adolescent psychopathology · 2024Article
- The Interplay between Fear Reactivity and Callous-Unemotional Traits Predicting Reactive and Proactive Aggression.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Examining the Association between Psychopathic Traits and Fearlessness among Maximum-Security Incarcerated Male Adolescents.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Article
- Psychometric Properties, Factor Structure, and Validity of the Sensitivity to Threat and Affiliative Reward Scale in Children and Adults.Assessment · 2023Article
- Fearlessness as an Underlying Mechanism Leading to Conduct Problems: Testing the Intermediate Effects of Parenting, Anxiety, and callous-unemotional Traits.Research on child and adolescent psychopathology · 2023Article
- Conceptualizing Callous-Unemotional Traits in Chinese Preschoolers: Factor Structure and Measurement Invariance.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Genetic versus environmental influences on callous-unemotional traits in preadolescence: The role of parenting and parental psychopathology.Development and psychopathology · 2022Article
- Callous-unemotional traits and anxiety in adolescents: a latent profile analysis to identify different types of antisocial behavior in a high-risk community sample.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2022Article
- Examining Links Between Infant Parasympathetic Regulation during the Still-Face Paradigm and Later Callous-Unemotional Traits.Research on child and adolescent psychopathology · 2022Article
- Low social affiliation predicts increases in callous-unemotional behaviors in early childhood.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2022Article
- The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Children's Conduct Problems and Callous-Unemotional Traits.Child psychiatry and human development · 2021Article
- A Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Test of the Low Sensitivity to Threat and Affiliative Reward (STAR) Model of Callous-Unemotional Traits Among Spanish Preschoolers.Research on child and adolescent psychopathology · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
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Abstract
backgroundEarly callous-unemotional (CU) behaviors identify children at risk for severe and persistent aggression and antisocial behavior. Recent work suggests that fearlessness and low social affiliation are implicated in the etiology of CU behaviors, although more research is needed to clarify these etiological pathways, as well as the role of parenting.
methodUsing a sample of preschoolers (N = 620), we examined pathways between observed fear in response to social and non-social stimuli and observed social affiliation during social interactions at age 3 and increases child CU behaviors and oppositional-defiant behaviors from ages 3 to 5. To elucidate the role of parenting in exacerbating or buffering the relationships between low fear and social affiliation and CU behaviors, we tested whether parental harshness or low warmth moderated these pathways.
resultsFearlessness and low social affiliation uniquely predicted increases in CU behaviors, but not oppositional-defiant behaviors, from ages 3 to 5. Moreover, there was evidence for differential moderation of the fear pathway by harsh parenting, such that harsh parenting predicted increases in CU behaviors in fearless children but increases in oppositional-defiant behaviors in fearful children.
conclusionsFearlessness and low social affiliation contribute to the development of CU behaviors. Harsh parenting can exacerbate the risky fearlessness pathway. Preventative interventions aimed at reducing risk for CU behaviors and persistent aggression and antisocial behavior should target socioaffiliative processes and provide parents with strategies and training to manage and scaffold rule-compliant behavior when children show low fearful arousal.
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