Profils d’adolescentes : liens entre les traits d’insensibilité émotionnelle, l’historique de victimisation et la santé mentale
Callous-unemotional traits, such as a lack of consideration and empathy for others, are important to consider in identifying subgroups of youth at risk of serious and persistent antisocial behavior (Frick & Dickens, 2006; Frick & White, 2008). Two variants (primary and secondary) of youth who manifest callous-unemotional traits have been identified. Specifically, adolescents with secondary callous-unemotional traits have been found to differ from those associated with the primary variant by their higher levels of anxiety and depression (Fanti et al., 2013; Kahn et al., 2013) as well as their history of adversity (Meehan et al., 2017) and self-destructive behaviors, such as substances use (Cecil et al., 2018). Studies that focused on the differences between the profiles of youth were mainly based on male samples who are notably more likely than females to display conduct problems combined with callous-unemotional traits (Fontaine et al., 2011). Based on a sample of adolescent females, the first aim of this study was to identify youth profiles based on callous-unemotional traits (CU), conduct problems (CP) and internalized symptoms (i.e. anxiety and depression). The second aim was to identify the differences in youth profiles in terms of their self-destructive behaviors, such as alcohol and drug use (Baumeister & Scher, 1988) and eating disorders (Van der Kolk & Herman, 1991), as well as their history of family and social victimization, such as abuse, neglect and bullying by peers. A sample of 200 adolescent girls was recruited from high schools located in Montreal and from the Institute for Youth in difficulty (n = 200; M = 15.10 years old; S-D = 1.62). Latent profile analyses performed using Mplus 8 software provided an optimal four-class solution: normative, anxious, conduct problems (CP), conduct problems–callous unemotional traits (CP–CUT). In addition to reporting more anxiety and depression than the normative group, girls with the highest rates of iv callous-unemotional traits and conduct problems (CP-CUT) also reported the highest levels of exposure to family and social victimization and self-destructive behaviors, such as substances abuse. This profile shows several features associated with the secondary variant of callous-unemotional traits. Thus, the results of this study confirm the importance of considering the heterogeneity of behaviors as well as the history of victimization among groups of high-risk girls. In particular, the identification of these adolescent profiles is important to prevent other adjustment difficulties and to tailor interventions to the individual characteristics and experiences of victimization.
Callous-unemotional traits Conduct problems Anxiety Depression Victimization Alcohol and drug use Eating disorders