| Description |
Callous-unemotional (CU) traits are an important distinguishing characteristic among delinquent youth, as youth displaying CU traits tend to commit the most severe offenses. CU traits have typically been conceptualized as biologically ingrained traits; however, recent research suggests that some youth may "acquire" CU traits in response to trauma. With the intention of increasing knowledge of the emotional processes associated with acquired callousness, the current study proposes a refined version of betrayal trauma theory which subsequently informed the inclusion of experiential avoidance and emotional numbing in potential models of acquired callousness. Structural equation modeling was used to test the proposed models of acquired callousness in a sample of 213 detained youth. Results of confirmatory factor analyses used to identify a measurement model with adequate fit necessitated examining different forms of experiential avoidance and emotional numbing in the structural models tested. Overall, results were consistent with a "partial serial mediation model" of acquired callousness, in which experiential avoidance fully mediates the association between betrayal trauma and emotional numbing, and emotional numbing, in turn, partially mediates the association between experiential avoidance and callousness. Results indicated that these findings were specific to models that included tension reduction behaviors as an index of experiential avoidance and general numbing as an index of emotional numbing. These findings suggest that maladaptive forms of experiential avoidance may help to explain the association between betrayal trauma and callousness. Furthermore, numbing of specific emotions, such as sadness, may reflect different variants of emotional detachment as compared to general numbing and may have different implications for acquired callousness. To further expand on prior research, the current study compared the effects of betrayal trauma occurring in different developmental time periods and found that only betrayal trauma occurring in adolescence contributed to youth callousness. Taken together, the findings of the current study offer insight into the circumstances under which both experiential avoidance and emotional numbing may contribute to callousness and contribute to the growing body of literature that suggests that some youth may acquire callousness in response to the experience of trauma. |
