Callous-Unemotional Traits and Co-occurring Anxiety in Preschool and School-age Children: Investigation of Associations with Family's Socioeconomic Status and Home Chaos

While contemporary literature has traditionally viewed youth with Callous-Unemotional (CU) traits as a homogeneous group, there is a growing interest in delineating two variants of CU traits based on high or low levels of anxiety. Extensive attention has been brought in the CU traits literature to the study of relational factors such as maltreatment and parenting practices. However, very few studies have looked at other environmental contexts in which the children within these two variants evolve, such as home chaos or socioeconomic status (SES). In a community sample of children aged 4 to 9, divided into a preschool sample (N = 107; Mage = 4.95, SD = 0.62) and a school-age sample (N = 153; Mage = 7.49, SD = 1.11), the current study investigated whether anxiety moderates the associations of CU traits with SES and home chaos. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that CU traits were positively associated with home chaos, regardless of anxiety levels. CU traits were negatively associated with SES, but this effect emerged only at high levels of anxiety. Notably, these findings were observed solely in the school-age subsample. Implications for understanding the two variants of CU traits (i.e., primary and secondary) and hypotheses regarding their developmental trajectories are discussed.