Department of Psychology and Human Development, UCL Institute of Education, London, UK.
Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
J Youth Adolesc. 2021 Apr;50(4):788-802. doi: 10.1007/s10964-021-01414-2. Epub 2021 Mar 11.
Poor educational outcomes are common among children with antisocial behavior problems, including among a subgroup of antisocial children with callous-unemotional traits, who show deficits in empathy, guilt, and prosociality. However, few studies have explored the unique contributions of antisocial behavior and callous-unemotional traits to school outcomes and most prior studies have been conducted in Western countries. The current study thus tested associations between callous-unemotional traits, antisocial behavior, and trajectories of school outcomes among South Korean children. Participants aged 10-12 years (N = 218; 52% boys) completed questionnaires assessing antisocial behavior, callous-unemotional traits, verbal ability, and school engagement, and teachers provided children's Math and Korean grades at three time points during a single academic year. Prospective associations were explored in conditional latent growth curve models. Both antisocial behavior and callous-unemotional traits were related to lower school engagement at the start of the academic year, but the magnitude of the associations was greater for callous-unemotional traits, suggesting a greater adverse effect of callous-unemotional traits on engagement than antisocial behavior. Moreover, children with high levels of callous-unemotional traits showed stable and low levels of school engagement. There were no significant predictive associations between antisocial behavior or callous-unemotional traits and trajectories of academic grades. The findings suggest that interventions aimed at improving educational outcomes among antisocial children should be tailored according to the presence of callous-unemotional traits to target the specific needs of individual students, particularly at the start of the school year.
学业不良在具有反社会行为问题的儿童中很常见，包括具有冷酷无情特征的反社会儿童亚组，他们在同理心、内疚感和亲社会行为方面存在缺陷。然而，很少有研究探讨反社会行为和冷酷无情特征对学校成绩的独特贡献，而且大多数先前的研究都是在西方国家进行的。因此，本研究测试了反社会行为和冷酷无情特征与韩国儿童学校成绩轨迹之间的关系。参与者年龄在 10-12 岁之间（N=218；52%为男孩），完成了评估反社会行为、冷酷无情特征、语言能力和学校参与度的问卷，教师在一学年的三个时间点提供了儿童的数学和韩语成绩。在条件潜在增长曲线模型中探索了前瞻性关联。反社会行为和冷酷无情特征都与学年开始时较低的学校参与度相关，但冷酷无情特征的关联程度更大，表明冷酷无情特征对参与度的不利影响大于反社会行为。此外，具有高冷酷无情特征的儿童表现出稳定和低水平的学校参与度。反社会行为或冷酷无情特征与学业成绩轨迹之间没有显著的预测关联。研究结果表明，针对具有反社会行为的儿童改善教育成果的干预措施应根据冷酷无情特征的存在进行调整，以针对个别学生的具体需求，特别是在学年开始时。
