Gender Differences in Callous Unemotional Trait Profiles in an Undergraduate Sample

ABSTRACT

A wealth of research has consistently identified two distinct callous unemotional (CU) variants that differ on etiological mechanisms. While the first variant has been posited to represent a genetically predisposed difference in lower emotional arousal, the secondary variant demonstrates overlap with trauma-related symptomatology. Limited research has examined whether these CU variants differ based on child maltreatment subtypes or whether symptom profiles for CU variants differ by male-identified and female-identified participants. We aimed to replicate findings that individuals in the secondary CU group demonstrate higher PTSS. In an undergraduate sample of youth ages 18 to 24 (N = 546; 55.5% female), the present study examined whether CU variants could be identified utilizing latent profile analysis including CU trait clusters (i.e., callousness, uncaring, unemotional), anxiety, and child maltreatment subtypes. We identified unique symptom profiles by male-identified and female-identified gender. CU variant groups were differentiated based on the severity of child maltreatment experiences and anxiety symptoms. The manifestation of CU symptoms differed by variant group and by gender. Additionally, PTSS was highest in secondary CU variant groups. The findings support the conceptualization of the secondary CU variant group as a trauma-based reaction and suggest potential differences in symptom profiles by gender.

KEYWORDS:

• Callous unemotional traits
• child maltreatment
• posttraumatic stress disorder

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical Standards and Informed Consent

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation [institutional and national] and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website.

Notes

¹ The authors acknowledge that gender is a social construct existing on a continuum and is not synonymous with sex assigned at birth. For the literature review and descriptions of gender in the current study, the terms ‘male’ and ‘female’ are utilized as shorthand proxy to refer to ‘male-identified’ and’ female-identified’ individuals.