Behavioral Improvements but Limited Change in Callous-Unemotional Traits in Adolescents Treated for Conduct Problems.
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| Title: | Behavioral Improvements but Limited Change in Callous-Unemotional Traits in Adolescents Treated for Conduct Problems. |
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| Authors: | Thøgersen, Dagfinn Mørkrid, Elmose, Mette, Viding, Essi, McCrory, Eamon, Bjørnebekk, Gunnar |
| Source: | Journal of Child & Family Studies. Dec2022, Vol. 31 Issue 12, p3342-3358. 17p. 2 Charts, 1 Graph. |
| Subjects: | Family psychotherapy, Personality in adolescence, Behavioral assessment, Child behavior, Behavior disorders, Treatment effectiveness, Randomized controlled trials, Teenagers' conduct of life, Descriptive statistics, Emotions in adolescence, Antisocial personality disorders, Social skills, Parent-child relationships, Aggression (Psychology), Social disabilities, Behavior modification, Parents, Latent structure analysis, Evaluation, Adolescence |
| Abstract: | Callous-unemotional (CU) traits have been linked to more severe and sustained behavior problems among adolescents. The aims of this study were to examine the treatment impact and malleability of CU traits among adolescents and explore potential moderation effects of treatment condition and CU sub-typology. A sample of 159 adolescents (45.9% girls; M age = 14.7 years, SD = 1.47) and their parents participated in a randomized controlled trial of Functional Family Therapy with three assessments (baseline, 6-months and 18-months) of behavior problems, CU traits, prosocial skills and the parent-youth relationship. Latent growth curve model (LGCM) analyses revealed that children with higher CU traits had greater reductions in aggressive and rule-breaking behavior and greater improvements in social skills (|standardized coefficients| = 0.27–0.32). Similarly, higher CU traits were linked to larger increases in parent-ratings of family cohesion and youth-ratings of maternal support (standardized coefficients = 0.26–0.27). Reliable Change Index summaries showed that CU traits remained unchanged for the majority of participants (73.6% and 72.6% had no reliable short- and long-term change, respectively). Baseline anxiety linked to CU sub-typology moderated some of the study results. Findings show that adolescents with co-occurring behavior problems and elevated CU traits can obtain improvement in behavioral and relational outcomes in out-patient treatment. Strikingly, such improvements can occur notwithstanding a limited reduction in CU traits. Future work should investigate whether the treatment gains would be more substantial and stable if treatment adjuncts modifying the CU traits themselves were concurrently deployed. Highlights: CU traits did not diminish the treatment outcomes for youth receiving quality psycho-social interventions in an outpatient setting. CU traits did not predict sustained or reoccurring behavior problems, when youth were assessed at the 18 month follow up. CU traits remained stable across treatment for most youth while showing some level of malleability among those with higher levels of CU traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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| Database: | Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection |
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