Callous-Unemotional Traits and Prosocial Behaviour: The Role of Guilt and Environmental Sensitivity Traits

Callous Unemotional (CU) traits, characterized by lack of empathy and shallow and restricted affect, are negatively associated with prosocial behaviour, and increase the risk of antisocial behaviors in youths. Acting pro-socially means responding to the needs of others, reading the situation and understanding that other persons need help. Thus, both environmental sensitivity, namely the general ability to register and process environmental stimuli, and reduced ability to feel guilt, may play a role in determining prosocial behaviour in children with CU traits. The aim of this study is to examine whether the negative longitudinal relationship between CU traits and prosocial behaviour is mediated by guilt, and whether this relationship differs between children with low and high levels of environmental sensitivity. Such information may significantly affect diagnostic, preventative and treatment strategies. Overall, 149 boys aged 7-14 years (Mage = 9.47; SDage = 1.75) took part in the study. The results only partially confirm the hypothesis. As expected, CU traits were found to negatively predict prosocial behaviour over time, and this association was mediated by guilt. However, contrary to expectations, environmental sensitivity did not moderate these pathways, being the relationships between CU traits, guilt and prosocial behaviour similar in high and low environmental sensitivity. There is room for further research exploring whether disentangling the general construct of environmental sensitivity in more specific dimensions (e.g., social sensitivity, sensorial sensitivity, emotional reactivity) may add more information about the longitudinal link between CU traits and prosocial outcomes.