TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2021//
TI  - Moral reasoning, emotion understanding, and callous-unemotional traits in early-to-middle childhood
JO  - British journal of developmental psychology
A1  - Northam, Jaimie C.
A1  - Kurukulasuriya, Nadezhda
A1  - Hunt, Caroline
A1  - Hawes, David J.
SP  - ePub
EP  - ePub
VL  - ePub
IS  - ePub
N2  - Relatively little is known about features of moral reasoning among young children with callous-unemotional (CU) traits (e.g., lack of guilt and empathy). This study tested associations between CU traits and emotion attributions (i.e., identification of others' emotional states) and justifications (i.e., explanations for those emotional states), across social scenarios involving discreet versus salient distress cues. The participants were boys aged 6-to-10 years (N = 50; M(age) = 7 years 7 months), who were interviewed about 12 hypothetical scenarios (eight with discreet and four with salient distress cues). Regression models indicated that CU traits, in interaction with high levels of antisocial behaviour, were associated with reduced emotion attributions of fear in discreet but not salient immoral scenarios. Higher CU traits were also associated with reduced justifications referencing others' welfare in discreet scenarios, and increased references to action-orientated justifications in salient scenarios. These findings suggest that CU traits are associated with early moral reasoning impairments and that salience of distress may be important to these processes.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0261-510X
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/bjdp.12402
ID  - ref1
ER  -