Does Gender Moderate the Relationship between Callous-Unemotional Traits and Physical Aggression?

Abstract

The study investigates the interaction effect of callous-unemotional (CU) traits and gender on physical aggression among Nigerian adolescents. Two hundred and ninety five (295) senior secondary school students who were between 14-16 years of age participated in the study. These participants included boys (152) and girls (143). They were selected from a public senior secondary school in Anambra a South Eastern State of Nigeria and all the participants were of Igbo ethnic group. The raw data for Callous-unemotional traits and Physical Aggression were collected using Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits (ICU) by Frick (2004) and Aggression Scale by Orpinas and Frankowski (2001) respectively. The data were analyzed using Pearson correlation, and conditional process analysis (model number 1; Hayes, 2013). The results showed that gender correlated significantly with uncaring and physical aggression but did not correlate significantly with CU and callousness. The results further showed that gender, CU traits, uncaring and callousness subscales significantly predicted physical aggression. Gender also moderated the effect of CU traits and uncaring on physical aggression, but did not moderate the effect of callousness on physical aggression. The discussion focused on the ways of helping individuals with high level of CU traits to reduce aggression, also the limitations of the study, suggestions for further studies and the implications of the finding were highlighted.