PROFILES OF CALLOUS/UNEMOTIONAL BEHAVIORS, CONDUCT PROBLEMS AND INTERNALIZING BEHAVIORS AMONG LOW-INCOME URBAN YOUTH

Abstract

Childhood mental health problems are considered to fall along internalizing and externalizing dimensions; however, this framing does not fully capture the complexity of the relations among these symptoms. Specifically, internalizing problems (Int), conduct problems (CP), and callous/unemotional (CU) behaviors frequently co-occur and may share emotion functioning and contextual correlates that differentially confer risk across these potential symptom profiles. Research is shifting toward testing models of shared vulnerabilities to childhood emotional and behavioral symptoms, but has yet to extensively examine CU behaviors concurrently with these symptoms. The culmination of findings across relevant literature, though sparse, identifies candidate shared child-specific correlates such as emotion function (i.e., recognition, regulation, lability, processing); exposure to community violence; parent emotion socialization practices; and peer processes (e.g., bullying/victimization, social support) as shared correlates of Int, CP, and CU behaviors that may further differentiate profiles that differ in the frequency, type, or severity of symptoms. Such information could facilitate identification of youth at risk for problematic symptoms and outcomes. The current study sought to identify profiles of Int, CP, and CU behaviors in a sample of 104 low-income (69% income < $19,999; all eligible for free school meals) urban youth (M= 9.93 ± 1.22 years old; 50% male; 95% African American). Teachers rated Int, CP, and CU behaviors; and caregivers rated their emotion socialization practices and youth emotion regulation and lability. Youth reported on bullying, peer victimization, social support, and exposure to community violence and completed two lab tasks to assess emotion recognition and processing. A latent profile analysis yielded three teacher-reported profiles: (1) high internalizing, moderate CU, and moderate CP (High-Int/Mod-CU/CP, n = 16; 51.7% male); (2) high generalized anxiety disorder symptoms, CU, and CP (High-GAD/CU/CP, n = 16; 80.9% male); and (3) low problematic behaviors (Low, n = 59; 45.5% male), with the first two profiles rated as having co-occurring presentations of anxiety, depression, and CU behaviors, with different levels of CP. Auxiliary analyses revealed that the High-Int/Mod-CU/CP and High-GAD/CU/CP profiles differed only in levels of recognition of sad facial expressions, whereas the High-GAD/CU/CP and Low profiles differed on witnessing community violence and emotion regulation. The High-GAD/CU/CP profile also reportedly exhibited the greatest engagement in bullying and emotional lability. Current findings add to the growing literature on profiles of youth emotional and behavioral problems that include different constellations with co-occurring CU behaviors among youth in contexts that place them at increased risk for poor functional outcomes.