1
|
Sun S, Plate RC, Jones C, Rodriguez Y, Katz C, Murin M, Pearson J, Parish-Morris J, Waller R. Childhood conduct problems and parent-child talk during social and nonsocial play contexts: a naturalistic home-based experiment. Sci Rep 2024; 14:1018. [PMID: 38200250 PMCID: PMC10781972 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-51656-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/23/2023] [Accepted: 01/08/2024] [Indexed: 01/12/2024] Open
Abstract
Parent-child interactions are a critical pathway to emotion socialization, with disruption to these processes associated with risk for childhood behavior problems. Using computational linguistics methods, we tested whether (1) play context influenced parent-child socioemotional language, and (2) child conduct problems or callous-unemotional traits were associated with patterns of socioemotional or nonsocial language across contexts. Seventy-nine parent-child dyads (children, 5-6 years old) played a socioemotional skills ("social context") or math ("nonsocial context") game at home. We transcribed and analyzed game play, which had been audio recorded by participants. The social context elicited more socioemotional and cognitive words, while the nonsocial context elicited more mathematical words. The use of socioemotional language by parents and children was more strongly correlated in the social context, but context did not moderate the degree of correlation in cognitive or mathematical word use between parents and children. Children with more conduct problems used fewer socioemotional words in the social context, while children with higher callous-unemotional traits used fewer cognitive words in both contexts. We highlight the role of context in supporting socioemotionally rich parent-child language interactions and provide preliminary evidence for the existence of linguistic markers of child behavior problems. Our results also inform naturalistic assessments of parent-child interactions and home-based interventions for parents and children facing socioemotional or behavioral challenges.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Sydney Sun
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Levin Building, 425 S. University Ave., Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA
| | - Rista C Plate
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Levin Building, 425 S. University Ave., Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA
| | - Callie Jones
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Levin Building, 425 S. University Ave., Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA
| | - Yuheiry Rodriguez
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Levin Building, 425 S. University Ave., Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA
| | - Chloe Katz
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Levin Building, 425 S. University Ave., Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA
| | - Melissa Murin
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Levin Building, 425 S. University Ave., Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA
| | - Jules Pearson
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Levin Building, 425 S. University Ave., Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA
| | - Julia Parish-Morris
- Center for Autism Research, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Rebecca Waller
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Levin Building, 425 S. University Ave., Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Wilke J, Goagoses N. Morality in middle childhood: the role of callous-unemotional traits and emotion regulation skills. BMC Psychol 2023; 11:283. [PMID: 37735710 PMCID: PMC10515015 DOI: 10.1186/s40359-023-01328-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/28/2023] [Accepted: 09/14/2023] [Indexed: 09/23/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The development of morality is vital for fostering prosocial behavior and enhancing both individual and societal well-being. Clarifying what contextual and individual factors play a role in moral processes during childhood can contribute to our understanding of the development of morality. Given the previous acknowledgment of importance, yet lack of existing empirical findings, the study focused on the significance of callous-unemotional traits (i.e., an affective-interpersonal personality trait, related to psychopathy in adulthood) and emotion regulation (i.e., an essential part of socio-emotional competence, and a transdiagnostic factor in the development of psychopathology) for moral emotions and cognitions during middle childhood. The concrete aim was to examine direct and indirect effects of callous-unemotional trait dimensions (callousness, uncaring, unemotionality) onto immoral emotional attribution (i.e., feeling good after immoral decisions) and admissibility of immoral actions (i.e., evaluating immoral actions as being okay) via emotion regulation skills. METHODS A cross-sectional study was conducted with 194 children attending Grades 1 to 4, and their primary caregivers. The children completed the Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits and caregivers completed the Emotion Regulation Checklist. The children were also presented with a set of moral dilemma vignettes, and asked about the emotions of protagonists who acted immoral, and the admissibility of their actions. RESULTS Path-model analysis revealed (1) negative direct effects of emotion regulation skills onto immoral emotional attribution and admissibility of immoral actions, (2) positive direct effects of the dimensions callousness and uncaring onto immoral emotional attribution and admissibility of immoral actions, and (3) negative direct effects of dimensions callousness and uncaring onto emotion regulation skills. Indirect effects, indicating that emotion regulation skills mediate the association between the callous-unemotional trait dimensions and morality, were also found. CONCLUSION The findings address a knowledge gap and indicate that emotion regulation skills, callousness, and uncaring play an important role in morality in middle childhood and should be included in frameworks of moral decision-making and development.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jessica Wilke
- Department of Special Needs Education & Rehabilitation, Carl von Ossietzky Universität of Oldenburg, Ammerländer Heerstraße 114-118, 26129, Oldenburg, Germany.
| | - Naska Goagoses
- Department of Special Needs Education & Rehabilitation, Carl von Ossietzky Universität of Oldenburg, Ammerländer Heerstraße 114-118, 26129, Oldenburg, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Seara-Cardoso A. The "(a)moral brain": When things go wrong. HANDBOOK OF CLINICAL NEUROLOGY 2023; 197:107-117. [PMID: 37633704 DOI: 10.1016/b978-0-12-821375-9.00008-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/28/2023]
Abstract
In the past decades, a growing interest of neuroscience on moral judgment and decision-making has shed new light on the neurobiological correlates of human morality. It is now understood that moral cognition relies on a complex integration of cognitive and affective information processes that implicate a widely distributed brain network. Moral cognition relies on the coordination of several domain-general processes, subserved by domain-general neural networks, rather than a specific moral cognition system subserved by a specific neural network. In this chapter, we will first briefly review what is currently known about the "moral brain," i.e., the network of brain regions consistently implicated in studies of moral cognition, which include decision-making, affective processing, mentalizing, and perspective-taking processing regions. We will then review the evidence of the impairments found in this network in individuals with psychopathy, a condition whose characteristics indicate profound disturbances in appropriate moral processing. We will present data from neuroimaging studies with forensic/clinical, general population, as well as child and adolescent samples, which seem to converge to support the notion that the moral dysfunction observed in individuals with psychopathy may stem from a disruption of affective components of moral processing rather than from an inability to compute moral judgments per se.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ana Seara-Cardoso
- Psychology Research Centre, School of Psychology, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal.
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Northam JC, Kurukulasuriya N, Hunt C, Hawes DJ. Moral reasoning, emotion understanding, and callous-unemotional traits in early-to-middle childhood. BRITISH JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 2022; 40:306-319. [PMID: 34939686 DOI: 10.1111/bjdp.12402] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/2021] [Accepted: 12/02/2021] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
Relatively little is known about features of moral reasoning among young children with callous-unemotional (CU) traits (e.g., lack of guilt and empathy). This study tested associations between CU traits and emotion attributions (i.e., identification of others' emotional states) and justifications (i.e., explanations for those emotional states), across social scenarios involving discreet versus salient distress cues. The participants were boys aged 6-to-10 years (N = 50; Mage = 7 years 7 months), who were interviewed about 12 hypothetical scenarios (eight with discreet and four with salient distress cues). Regression models indicated that CU traits, in interaction with high levels of antisocial behaviour, were associated with reduced emotion attributions of fear in discreet but not salient immoral scenarios. Higher CU traits were also associated with reduced justifications referencing others' welfare in discreet scenarios, and increased references to action-orientated justifications in salient scenarios. These findings suggest that CU traits are associated with early moral reasoning impairments and that salience of distress may be important to these processes.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jaimie C Northam
- School of Psychology, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | | | - Caroline Hunt
- School of Psychology, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - David J Hawes
- School of Psychology, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Koenig S, Gao Y. Moral decision making in adolescents: The effects of peer attachment, interpersonal affect, and gender. J Adolesc 2022; 94:166-175. [DOI: 10.1002/jad.12015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/22/2021] [Revised: 01/18/2022] [Accepted: 01/20/2022] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Scott Koenig
- Psychology Program The Graduate Center of the City University of New York New York New York USA
- Department of Psychology Brooklyn College of the City University of New York Brooklyn New York USA
| | - Yu Gao
- Psychology Program The Graduate Center of the City University of New York New York New York USA
- Department of Psychology Brooklyn College of the City University of New York Brooklyn New York USA
| |
Collapse
|