Cao Vanessa T, Davies Patrick T, Sturge-Apple Melissa L
Department of Psychology, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, 14627, USA.
Dev Psychopathol. 2023 Mar 23:1-11. doi: 10.1017/S0954579423000263.
Research suggests that unsupportive parenting practices are consistent but modest risk factors for children's behavioral and social problems, emphasizing the importance in identifying sources of variability in children's vulnerability. To address this research direction, this study examined children's callous-unemotional (CU) traits (i.e., affective indifference; lack of guilt or empathy), as a moderator of the associations among maternal and paternal unsupportive parenting and their externalizing symptoms. Participants included 240 mothers, partners, and their children ( = 4.6 years; 56% girls) from diverse backgrounds (48% Black; 16% Latinx) who took part in a longitudinal multi-method study with two measurement occasions spaced 2 years apart. Findings from structural equation modeling indicated the prospective association between observational assessments of unsupportive maternal (but not paternal) parenting and residualized changes in teacher reports children's externalizing problems over 2 years was significantly moderated by maternal reports of children's callous-unemotional traits ( = -.21, < .05). Follow-up analyses of the interaction provided support for differential susceptibility. These findings highlight that children with elevated CU traits may experience diminished susceptibility to parenting, while children with lower levels of CU traits may exhibit plasticity in response to socialization environments.
研究表明，不支持性的养育方式是导致儿童行为和社会问题的持续但适度的风险因素，这凸显了识别儿童易感性差异来源的重要性。为了回应这一研究方向，本研究考察了儿童的冷酷无情（CU）特质（即情感冷漠；缺乏内疚或同理心），作为父母不支持性养育与其外化症状之间关联的调节变量。参与者包括来自不同背景（48%为黑人；16%为拉丁裔）的240位母亲、伴侣及其子女（平均年龄 = 4.6岁；56%为女孩），他们参与了一项纵向多方法研究，有两次测量，间隔两年。结构方程模型的结果表明，在两年间，对不支持性母亲（而非父亲）养育方式的观察评估与教师报告的儿童外化问题的残差变化之间的前瞻性关联，受到母亲报告的儿童冷酷无情特质的显著调节（β = -.21，p < .05）。对该交互作用的后续分析为差异易感性提供了支持。这些发现凸显出，具有较高CU特质的儿童可能对养育方式的易感性降低，而具有较低CU特质水平的儿童可能会根据社会化环境表现出可塑性。
