Maternal Parenting Mediate the Relationship between Maternal Psychopathic Traits and Child Callous-Unemotional Traits: A Longitudinal Multiple Mediation Model

The current study aimed to examine the mediation role of parenting styles (i.e., authoritative and authoritarian) in the relationship between maternal psychopathic traits and child callous-unemotional (CU) traits. A longitudinal research design was adopted using a sample of 486 Chinese mothers and child dyads in which children were between the ages of 8 and 11 years. The data was collected at three time points: mother-reported maternal psychopathy traits at Time One (T1), and parenting at Time 2 (T2), and at Time 3 (T3). Both the mother and the child reported on the child’s CU traits. The structural equation modeling (SEM) results revealed that the relation between maternal psychopathic traits and mother-reported child CU traits was fully mediated by maternal authoritarian and authoritative parenting, however, the mediation of maternal authoritarian was on the edge of significance and authoritative parenting was not significant with the child-reported outcome. These findings indicate that maternal psychopathic traits influence child CU traits through authoritarian parenting styles, while the mediation of authoritative parenting styles on child CU traits exists only in mother-reported measures. The different findings in cross-informant results between mother and child provide implications for future interventions in that the multiple informant approach is effective in comprehensively assessing child CU traits.