Can callous-unemotional (CU) traits be acquired?

Objective. Callous-unemotional (CU) traits (i.e., “Limited Prosocial Emotions”) characterize a particularly severe subgroup of antisocial youth. Secondary CU traits, marked by co-occurring anxiety, are theorized to reflect an “acquired” phenotype that develops through an interaction between emotional sensitivity and adversity (e.g., harsh parenting). The aim of this study was to test this theorized pathway to CU traits in a large, diverse sample spanning pre-adolescence to adolescence. Methods. Data from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study included youth (N= 11,868; baseline Mage = 9.9; 48% female) assessed annually over four years via self- and caregiver-reports. Prospective and retrospective analyses examined emotional sensitivity, cumulative adversity, and their interactions on the prediction of CU traits/variants. Results. Among emotionally sensitive (≥90th %) youth with no baseline CU traits (n = 365), cumulative adversity failed to predict increases in or the onset of elevated CU traits after four years. Retrospective analyses similarly showed no main or interactive effects of emotional sensitivity and adversity during pre-adolescence in predicting secondary CU traits by middle-adolescence. However, a significant interaction between emotional sensitivity and adversity (B = 0.147, SE = 0.042, p < .001, OR = 1.158) was found for predicting primary CU traits over that of secondary, wherein the interaction held for predicting primary CU. Conclusions. Findings did not support a distinct pathway to secondary CU traits via emotional sensitivity and adversity. Thus, alternative theories, including those proposing a stronger role of shared genetic influence and/or anxiety as a marker of behavioral severity, need be investigated.