Callous-Unemotional Traits in Children

This assignment delves into the complex topic of callous-unemotional (CU) traits in children. It analyzes research papers exploring various aspects of CU traits, including their development, prediction of peer victimization, link to anxiety, impact on parenting relationships, and association with aggression and bullying. The papers also shed light on the neural underpinnings of CU traits, specifically the role of amygdala response to fear stimuli.

Psychology - CALLOUS
EMOTIONAL TRAITS

Psychology - CALLOUS EMOTIONAL TRAITS
Psychology can be determined as a scientific study of human functions and mind. In
other words, behaviour that affects human nature. There are different type of disorders that this
area understands studies (Ciucci, Baroncelli and Frick, 2014). In this context, Callous Emotional
traits is a type of disorder in which person lacks empathy, shallow affects and guilt. For growing
body, there traits are of clinical significance. Children with this type of traits possess violence
and persistent pattern of antisocial behaviour. All children can be impulsive, naughty and defiant
which is perfectly normal. However, in some of the cases there are challenging behaviours and
extreme difficulties which can be stated as outside the norm of their age. As per the analysis it is
found that out of ten children one face the issue of callous emotional traits. Children with this
type of traits are generally judged as bad kids and this is due to their refusal to accept rules and
delinquent behaviour. When the percentage of children with conduct disorder is evaluated, then
it can be stated that 5% of 10 year old have conduct disorder (Kochanska, Kim and Yoon, 2013).
This issue is generally found in boys more when compared with girls. There are different type of
symptoms found in these children's among which few of them include the following:
Disobeying parents: Child with conduct disorder do not prefer to take orders from
anyone that includes even their parents. All the rules and system that one should have to obey or
parents want their child to followed are neglected (Waller, Gardner and Hyde, 2013). These
children tent to live their own life and do not prefer anyone else to make them do what they
dislike. If the child is given something that he/she has to perform, then they will not perform it
frequently.
Illegal activity: These children get into different form of addictions like smoking, drugs,
alcohol at easy age. They prefer to perform those activities that mainly people adult type (Frick,
Blair and Castellanos, 2013).
Lack of empathy: Emotionally they do not feel pain that others go through their life.
Further, they fail to express their emotions in front of others. The action they made over certain
situation becomes irrelevant and fails to react accordingly.
Get aggressive: In case of any fight situation, there children make use of weapons and
fight for every small reasons for generally children does not do. They show up aggressive
behaviour to animals and people who show sadistic behaviours and this includes sexual or
physical abuse and bullying (Dadds, Allen and Scott, 2014).
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Criminal behaviour: It includes activities like breaking into vandalism and houses,
deliberately lighting fires, stealing, etc. Further, these children are frequent in lying and have
tendency to run away from home. In addition to this, in some of the cases, they also have the
tendency to suicide.
There are mainly three type of ways through which these children can be identified. In
this context, below given are three of them:
Inattention: When child with Callous Emotional traits is given many instructions that has
to be followed, then they get confused (Humayun, Kahn and Viding, 2014). They lack
concentration as they can not concentrate on one single thing. In addition to this, if different
tasks are given, then they would move on to next one without finishing the first.
Impulsivity: They do not listen to others and like to act as they like. Do not allow other to
speak and they presume that what every they do is right.
Overactivity: They can not sit ideal and tent to do something. In other words, they are
restless and fidgeting.
Antisocial behaviour can be determined as disruptive acts in which overt hostility and
aggression for others. People with this issue regularly violate social rules and perform activities
like theft, deceitfulness, disregard to others, etc. (Viding, Sebastian and McCrory, 2012). This
issue is found in children at the age of three or four and if it not properly checked, then it would
take severity over time. In other words, antisocial behaviour involves aggressive action against
parents, peers, teachers and includes activities like hitting, bullying, verbal abuse, includes
aggressive actions, etc. This type of issue is caused due to coercive social interactions in
families, educational environment and community. Further, there are different reasons due to
which this can occur. In this context, below given are few reasons for antisocial behaviours:
 It can be genetic, if any of the member in the family has this type of issue.
 Parents may be involved in consuming drug or alcohol (Cecil, Lysenko and Barker,
2014)
 Parents lack parental skills.
 Economic stress that is caused due to unemployment or poverty.
Gender: As stated above, mainly boys get affected this issues when compared with girls
for behaviour disorders (Ray, Thornton and Cauffman, 2016). The reason cause is unclear
whether it is due to genetic or if it is linked with socialisation experiences.
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Temperament: The behavioural disorder is developed among those children who are
aggressive, difficult to manage and are temperamental. When child show their anger frequently,
then it brings changes in the hormonal activities and thus it develops issues of disorder in
behavioural.
Birth and gestation: Further, it includes issues that increases the risk are low weight
births, difficult pregnancies and premature birth (Ansel, Barry and Herrington, 2015). In order
words, children's who do not get proper develop within the womb of mother have high risk of
behavioural disorder.
Learning difficulties: Child find difficulty in reading and writing. In this context, for most
of cases, patents do not get the actual issue that are faced by children's. However, risk should be
minimise by observing and understanding the behavioural changes that child show for different
situations. Child face issues in learning general thing that basically child of same age get tot
learn very quickly.
Brain development: Brains are different part and they all perform diverse set of roles. The
part of brain that controls attention appear to be less active for children with behavioural disorder
(Thornton, Frick and Terranova, 2013). The brain develops fully at the age of 8 and when child
finds difficulty to put on full focus, then the change of disorder in relation with behaviour is
high.
Intellectual disabilities: The child with behavioural disorder fail to make use of
intellectual skill or abilities. The children's who have this type of disorder, then the chances of
issues in relation with intellectual disabilities increases. They fail to perform normal part of job
or tasks that are provided to them.
Family life: It is likely for children to have behavioural disorder in dysfunctional
families. For instance, the risk increases for child where there is poverty, violence, substance
abuse, poor parenting skills, etc. (Fontaine, Hanscombe and Viding, 2016). The type of
environment that is provided to the child, same type of behaviour they develop. In this context,
the risk of issues relate to behaviour increase when the environment given to child is not
effective enough.
There are different factors that work in combination and is a complicated process for
disruptive behavioural disorder. Different set of diagnosis methods are used by in order to make
sure that this issue can be reduced. Below given are few methods for diagnosis:
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Diagnosis by specialist service: These are the professional who focus on providing
proper care to children's who have issues related to behavioural disorder. In this context, it
includes child psychiatrist or psychologist and paediatrician (Ciucci, Baroncelli and Frick, 2014).
These professionals aim at understanding the needs and requirements of patients and focus on
setting up appropriate strategies with the help of which issues are solved.
Interviews: As per this diagnosis, interviews are conducted. In this context, it includes
interviewee like parents, child, teachers. Through parents, professional get to find out the reason
due to which this has caused to their child. Teachers are interviewed in order to know
performance and specific observation that are made by them. Lastly, child is interviewed to
know the level issues whether major or minor.
Behavioural checklist: Professionals would monitor the child and try to understand the
behavioural difference that they perform for different set of situation (Kochanska, Kim and
Yoon, 2013). Further, questionnaire is developed that enables to know perception of parent and
child towards different scenarios and issues that are faced by them.
This type of behavioural meets are conducted in order to know the level of impact and
issues that are faced by children. Further, thee diagnosis help the health care professional to
develop strategies that will be helpful that can be followed with the help of which the impact of
behavioural disorder can be reduced.
It is important for setting up measure that will be helpful for making proper treatment for
behavioural disorder (Waller, Gardner and Hyde, 2013). In this context, parent play vital role as
they should monitor their child behaviour and take appropriate measures to understand them.
Below given are the treatments that should be provided to disruptive behavioural disorder:
Parental education: There are cases in which parents do not get to know the issues that
there child is facing through. With this respect, parents should be provided with proper education
so that they have effective communication and could manage their child.
Family therapy: Whole family is helpful to make improvement in the communication
process and in solving the issues that are faced by child with behavioural disorder (Frick, Blair
and Castellanos, 2013). In this context, it can be stated that one of the best method or treatment
for solving this issue of proper care and effective communication.
Cognitive behavioural theory: As per this therapy, child is provided with treatment in
which they develop skills to control their mind and thoughts. In accordance with the issue,
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children fail to control their mind and tent to perform as they think of. However, this treatment
helps them to have control over their thoughts before acting as per the situation.
Social training: Child with behavioural disorder fails to have effective interactions with
society (Dadds, Allen and Scott, 2014). However, professionals are provided treatments in which
they are supported to develop their social skills in which they are taught to have conversation.
Anger management: When there is interaction, then for many of the cases, child gets
angry. In this context, child is taught to recognize the sign of growing fluctuation and provided
with a design to defuse anger. With this respect, child is taught with stress management and
relaxation techniques.
Encouragement: Children's with disruptive behavioural disorder face repetitive failures
and also fail to have proper interaction with others (Humayun, Kahn and Viding, 2014). Child is
encouraged to focus on particular talent so that they will be able to put on their full efforts in
achieving their goals.
Medication: This provided to child and it is helpful to impulsive behaviours.
Further, there are many places and health related professional from were one can get
help. In this context, below given are few of them who can help for issues like disruptive
behavioural disorder:
 Doctor
 Child Psychologist
 Paediatrician
 Child psychiatrist
 CHAS (The Resource Centre for Child Health and Safety)
All these are helpful to provide appropriate steps that can be taken with the help of which
parents can provide their child with proper care.
From this above given information about disorders that child faces has high negative
impact over the growth and development. There are various treatments that can be provided but
among all these proper interaction is the one of the best source to provide better care and support.
Further, parents should devote their time for their child and understand the behavioural changes
that they show at different situations. Moreover, it is important that health care professional
provide parents with proper information about behavioural disorders. This will enable them to
develop effective strategies that will help them to over the issues that are faced by their child.
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REFERENCES
Ansel, L. L., Barry, C. T., & Herrington, L. L. (2015). An analysis of four self-report measures
of adolescent callous-unemotional traits: Exploring unique prediction of delinquency,
aggression, and conduct problems. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral
Assessment. 37(2). pp.207-216.
Cecil, C. A., Lysenko, L. J., & Barker, E. D. (2014). Environmental risk, oxytocin receptor gene
(OXTR) methylation and youth callous-unemotional traits: a 13-year longitudinal study.
Molecular psychiatry. 19(10). pp.1071-1077.
Ciucci, E., Baroncelli, A., & Frick, P. J. (2014). The association between callous-unemotional
traits and behavioral and academic adjustment in children: Further validation of the
Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral
Assessment. 36(2). pp.189-200.
Dadds, M. R., Allen, J. L., & Scott, S. (2014). Callous‐unemotional traits in children and
mechanisms of impaired eye contact during expressions of love: a treatment target?.
Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. 55(7). pp.771-780.
Fontaine, N. M., Hanscombe, K. B., & Viding, E. (2016). Trajectories of callous-unemotional
traits in childhood predict different forms of peer victimization in adolescence. Journal of
Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology. pp.1-9.
Frick, P. J., Blair, R. J., & Castellanos, F. X. (2013). Callous-unemotional traits and
developmental pathways to the disruptive behavior disorders. In Disruptive behavior
disorders (pp. 69-102). Springer New York.
Humayun, S., Kahn, R. E., & Viding, E. (2014). Callous-unemotional traits and anxiety in a
community sample of 7-year-olds. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology.
43(1). pp.36-42.
Kochanska, G., Kim, S., & Yoon, J. E. (2013). Children's callous‐unemotional traits moderate
links between their positive relationships with parents at preschool age and externalizing
behavior problems at early school age. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.
54(11). pp.1251-1260.
Ray, J. V., Thornton, L. C., & Cauffman, E. (2016). Impulse control and callous-unemotional
traits distinguish patterns of delinquency and substance use in justice involved adolescents:
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Examining the moderating role of neighborhood context. Journal of abnormal child
psychology. 44(3). pp.599-611.
Thornton, L. C., Frick, P. J., & Terranova, A. M. (2013). The incremental utility of callous-
unemotional traits and conduct problems in predicting aggression and bullying in a
community sample of boys and girls. Psychological assessment. 25(2). pp.366.
Viding, E., Sebastian, C. L., & McCrory, E. J. (2012). Amygdala response to preattentive
masked fear in children with conduct problems: the role of callous-unemotional traits.
American Journal of Psychiatry.
Waller, R., Gardner, F., & Hyde, L. W. (2013). What are the associations between parenting,
callous–unemotional traits, and antisocial behavior in youth? A systematic review of
evidence. Clinical Psychology Review. 33(4). pp.593-608.
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