Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2011 Mar;52(3):248-55.
doi: 10.1111/j.1469-7610.2010.02336.x. Epub 2010 Nov 12.

Perceptions of social conflicts among incarcerated adolescents with callous-unemotional traits: 'you're going to pay. It's going to hurt, but I don't care.'

Dustin Pardini  1
Affiliations

Perceptions of social conflicts among incarcerated adolescents with callous-unemotional traits: 'you're going to pay. It's going to hurt, but I don't care.'

Dustin Pardini. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2011 Mar.

Abstract

Background: Delinquent youth with callous-unemotional (CU) traits may have a unique social-cognitive processing pattern that perpetuates their violent behavior. The current study examined the association between CU traits and the endorsement of deviant social goals during peer conflicts as well as expectancies and values regarding victim suffering following aggression.

Methods: Participants included 156 (84 males, 72 females) adjudicated juveniles residing at two gender-specific residential facilities in an urban city within the southeastern United States. The association between CU traits and participants' ratings of their social goals in hypothetic conflict situations and outcome expectancies/values regarding victim suffering were examined after controlling for prior violence, intelligence, and demographic covariates.

Results: CU traits were associated with an increased endorsement of social goals associated with revenge, dominance, and forced respect in social conflict situations. Adjudicated youth with CU traits were also less likely to endorse conflict avoidance and friendship building as important social goals when provoked by peers. There was no association between CU traits and expectations for victim suffering following aggression, but CU traits were significantly associated with lower levels of concern about victim suffering. These findings were significant after controlling for participants' prior history of violence, intelligence, and demographic covariates.

Conclusions: Adjudicated youth with CU traits tend to emphasize power-oriented goals when provoked by peers and have little interest in rectifying social conflicts to build potential friendships with others. Juveniles with CU traits seem to be aware that their aggressive behavior will cause others to suffer, but they do not care when it does.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Blair RJ. Responsiveness to distress cues in the child with psychopathic tendencies. Personality and Individual Differences. 1999;27:135–145.
    1. Blair RJ, Budhani S, Colledge E, Scott S. Deafness to fear in boys with psychopathic tendencies. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. 2005;46:327–336. - PubMed
    1. Blair RJ, Colledge E, Murray L, Mitchell DG. A selective impairment in the processing of sad and fearful expressions in children with psychopathic tendencies. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology. 2001;29:491–498. - PubMed
    1. Blair RJ, Mitchell DG, Peschardt KS, Colledge E, Leonard RA, Shine JH, Murray LK, Perrett DI. Reduced sensitivity to others' fearful expressions in psychopathic individuals. Personality and Individual Differences. 2004;37:1111–1122.
    1. Boldizar JP, Perry DG, Perry LC. Outcome values and aggression. Child Development. 1989;60:571–579.

Publication types