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Abstract
Although empathy deficits are thought to be associated with callous-unemotional (CU) traits, findings remain equivocal and little is known about what specific abilities may underlie these purported deficits. Affective perspective-taking (APT) and facial emotion recognition may be implicated, given their independent associations with both empathy and CU traits. The current study examined how CU traits relate to cognitive and affective empathy and whether APT and facial emotion recognition mediate these relations. Participants were 103 adolescents (70 males) aged 16–18 attending a residential programme. CU traits were negatively associated with cognitive and affective empathy to a similar degree. The association between CU traits and affective empathy was partially mediated by APT. Results suggest that assessing mechanisms that may underlie empathic deficits, such as perspective-taking, may be important for youth with CU traits and may inform targets of intervention.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1 The partial correlation between CU traits and affective empathy while controlling for gender was pr = –.23, p = .02.
2 Due to the cross-sectional nature of the study, alternative mediation models were also analysed to ascertain the robustness of the current findings. In the model with CU traits as a predictor and affective empathy as the mediator to predict APT, there was a significant indirect effect. However, the effect was smaller than the hypothesised model, b = –.001, SE = .001, 95% CI [–.003, –.0002]. Furthermore, the model with affective empathy as the predictor and APT as the mediator to predict CU traits did not show significant mediation (indirect effect: b = –.02, SE = .02, 95% CI [–.07, .001].