title: "Nothing really matters": emotional numbing as a link between trauma exposure and callousness in delinquent youth.
abstract: This study investigated the interrelations among trauma exposure, emotional numbing, and callous-unemotional traits in a sample of 276 youth (68 girls and 208 boys) recruited from 2 juvenile detention centers. Youth completed interview measures of trauma exposure and betrayal trauma, as well as self-report measures of emotional numbing and callous-unemotional traits. Results of path analyses using nonparametric bootstrapping procedures indicated findings consistent with the hypothesis that the association between trauma exposure and callous-unemotional traits was mediated by the general numbing of emotions, R(2)  = .40, and also specifically by numbing of sadness, R(2)  = .27. In addition, further analyses indicated that numbing of fear, R(2)  = .18, and sadness, R(2)  = .26, statistically mediated the relations to callous-unemotional traits only for those traumatic experiences involving betrayal. Gender was not found to moderate these effects.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA. p.kerig@utah.edu
authors.forename: Patricia K
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Kerig
authors.forename: Diana C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Bennett
authors.forename: Mamie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.forename: Stephen P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Becker
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000523:psychology; D057565:Apathy; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007604:Juvenile Delinquency / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000145:classification / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*