2 - (SYM 56) Behavioral and Emotional Responses to Time-out in Elementary School Age Children with Conduct Problems: The Role of Callous-unemotional Traits

Introduction: Conduct problems (CP) are highly heterogenous. Callous-unemotional (CU) traits are a key factor in understanding CP severity and persistence (Frick et al., 2014; Moffit, 1993). Youth with CP and high levels of CU traits (CPCU) show a unique insensitivity towards punishment and are less aroused by distressing stimuli (Byrd, Loeber, & Pardini, 2014), such as time-out, a common behavior modification technique for youth with CP. Work has shown that youth with CPCU are less responsive to time-out (e.g., Bansal et al., 2020; Garcia et al., 2018; Haas et al., 2011), yet more work is needed to isolate the effects that CU traits exert upon time-out. The current study thus aimed to determine whether, in a sample of youth with CPCU, CU traits exerted unique behavioral and/or emotional response styles to time-out.

Method: Participants were 44 youth (77% male, ages 7-12, 54% Hispanic) enrolled in an eight-week summer treatment program. Behavioral outcomes included counts of aggressive and non-aggressive behavior. Emotional outcomes included observer ratings of anger, happiness, sadness, and calm. Zero-inflated negative binomial (ZINB) regressions examined the effects of CU over and above the effects of medication, time, ADHD, and CP.

Results: ZINB count models showed that CU traits predicted increased counts of aggressive (p < .0001) and non-aggressive (p < .01) time-out behaviors, increased counts of time spent in physical management (p < .001), and increased counselor-rated counts of happiness (p < .05). ZINB Logit models showed that CU traits predicted decreased likelihoods of physical management occurring (p < .05) and decreased likelihood of counselor-rated anger and happiness (ps < .05).

Discussion: Results provided further support for the role of CU traits in predicting behavioral and emotional responses to time-out. Results suggest that time-out may lead to limited efficacy as seen in increased aggressive and non-aggressive behaviors during time-out, as well as time spent in physical management. These findings reinforce prior work highlight limited efficacy of time-out for youth with CPCU and call for tailored interventions that map onto the unique contingency response styles of youth with CPCU.