Child Psychiatry and Human Development
Volume 47, Issue 2, 2016, Pages 215-225

The Contribution of Personality and Refugee Camp Experience to Callous and Unemotional Traits Among Immigrant Adolescents in the United States: Implications for the DSM-5 “Limited Prosocial Emotions” Specifier (Article)

Latzman R.D.* , Malikina M.V. , Hecht L.K. , Lilienfeld S.O. , Chan W.Y.
  • a Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, PO Box 5010, Atlanta, GA 30302-5010, United States
  • b Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, PO Box 5010, Atlanta, GA 30302-5010, United States
  • c Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, PO Box 5010, Atlanta, GA 30302-5010, United States
  • d Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United States
  • e Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, PO Box 5010, Atlanta, GA 30302-5010, United States

Abstract

Callous and Unemotional (C&U) traits characterize a group of adolescents who engage and persist in especially severe antisocial behaviors. These traits have been included in DSM-5 within a “Limited Prosocial Emotions” (LPE) specifier for Conduct Disorder. To investigate the generalizability of this specifier to non-Western cultures, we examined associations among Big Five personality, refugee camp experience, and C&U traits among 81 immigrant adolescents from non-Western cultures. Adolescents with refugee camp history endorsed higher levels of Uncaring than other adolescents. Personality traits explained 6 (Unemotional) to 18 % (Callousness) of the variance in C&U traits. The association between Neuroticism and Callousness held only for adolescents with a refugee camp history. Our results corroborate the importance of considering personality to understand C&U traits and the LPE specifier. Results also raise questions regarding the applicability of C&U traits to non-Western adolescents with varying pre-immigration experiences, and raise the possibility that the LPE specifier is vulnerable to false-positive identifications among such individuals. © 2015, Springer Science+Business Media New York.

Author Keywords

Big Five personality Callous and Unemotional traits conduct disorder DSM-5 immigrant adolescents

Index Keywords

antisocial personality disorder conduct disorder refugee physiology human Refugees United States Young Adult Humans migrant psychology Adolescent male Emigrants and Immigrants female adult Personality pathophysiology Child
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84930532816&doi=10.1007%2fs10578-015-0558-7&partnerID=40&md5=bc4087df32a8dafab47cd99eb2279b23
DOI: 10.1007/s10578-015-0558-7
ISSN: 0009398X
Cited by: 3
Original Language: English