Abstract
The current study investigated the measurement invariance of the Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits in school-attending youth in the UK (N = 437) and China (N = 364). The original 24-item ICU and five shortened versions proposed in previous studies were tested and compared using confirmatory factor analysis in the UK sample. Results indicated that the original ICU was a poor fit in the UK sample. A shortened, 11-item version (ICU-11) featuring two factors (Callousness and Uncaring) provided the best fit and was invariant across gender in both the UK and Chinese samples. Comparisons of the ICU-11 in UK and Chinese school children revealed a similar item-factor combination and factor loadings, but different item thresholds. Findings indicate that the ICU-11 may be a preferable alternative to the original version, but that average ICU-11 scores may have a different meaning in the UK and China.
Highlights
Callous-unemotional (CU) traits are characterized by a lack of guilt and empathy, low concern for performance and restricted or shallow emotions [1]
We focused on the United Kingdom (UK) sample given that previous research has examined this issue in Chinese primary school children, finding that the Inventory of Callous‐Unemotional Traits (ICU)-11 was the best fitting model [37]
Only the ICU-11 and ICU-12 showed an acceptable fit for all fit indices (e.g., comparative fit index (CFI) > 0.90 and Tucker-Lewis index (TLI) > 0.90) and both were a much better fit to the data provided by the UK sample than the other models
Summary
Callous-unemotional (CU) traits are characterized by a lack of guilt and empathy, low concern for performance and restricted or shallow emotions [1]. High levels of these traits demarcate an important subgroup of antisocial children who show more severe, varied and persistent antisocial behaviour [2, 3]. The presence of unique correlates, poor prognosis and reduced responsiveness to treatment in children with elevated CU traits highlights the University, Canberra, Australia 3 Department of Psychology, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, China 4 Department of Psychology and Human Development, University College London, London, UK need for assessment measures that demonstrate equivalence across children of different genders and in different cultures. The validation of a brief measure of CU traits would facilitate research aimed at informing school-based intervention, and reduce the assessment burden on research participants
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