Empathy and Bullying: Exploring the Influence of Callous-Unemotional Traits

Although knowing and feeling the emotions of other people might result in less bullying, we argue that not caring about these feelings will also be important. That is, what good is empathy, if one does not care about the feelings or values of others? We examined self-reports of callous-unemotional t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Child psychiatry and human development 2011-04, Vol.42 (2), p.183-196
Main Authors: Muñoz, Luna C., Qualter, Pamela, Padgett, Gemma
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Affective Behavior
Behavioral Science and Psychology
Biological and medical sciences
Bullying
Bullying - psychology
Caring
Child
Child and School Psychology
Child clinical studies
Child psychology
Children
Emotional Response
Emotions
Empathy
Female
Humans
Male
Medical sciences
Original Article
Personality
Personality Assessment
Personality Traits
Preadolescents
Psychiatry
Psychological Patterns
Psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Selfreport
Social behavior disorders
Surveys and Questionnaires
Thinking Skills
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Summary:Although knowing and feeling the emotions of other people might result in less bullying, we argue that not caring about these feelings will also be important. That is, what good is empathy, if one does not care about the feelings or values of others? We examined self-reports of callous-unemotional traits (CU: Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits), bullying, and empathy in 201 children (ages 11–12 years). Results show children high on CU to be lowest in affective empathy and highest in direct bullying. While all subscales of the ICU were related to affective empathy, only the uncaring subscale was uniquely related to cognitive empathy. Empathy did not explain differences in bullying when taking into account CU traits. Therefore, failing to care about others is more important than empathy for explaining the direct and indirect bullying these children take part in. Implications for targeting different forms of empathy in treatment are considered.
ISSN:0009-398X
1573-3327
DOI:10.1007/s10578-010-0206-1