A Follow?up Study On The Relationship Between Callous?unemotional Traits And Negative Affect In Middle School Students: A Moderated Mediation Model

During middle school,one is in the individual development of adolescence,known as the “emotional storm period”.A large number of studies have pointed out that middle school students have great mood swings and generally have negative affect experiences such as irritability,depression,and anxiety.Especially under the influence of the COVID-19,the middle school student is more vulnerable to shocks and produce various negative emotions due to their immaturity in physical and mental development.These will weaken the psychosocial function of middle school students,lead to their emotional maladjustment,and be more likely to induce their suicide,substance abuse,aggression/crime,academic difficulties,and physiological diseases.Therefore,it is necessary to explore the internal psychological factors that lead to the negative affect of middle school students.Theoretically,there should be a strong relationship between callous-unemotional traits and negative affect,and this relationship is related to both effortful control and future orientation,but the existing empirical research does not fully support this.Firstly,the correlation between callous-unemotional traits and negative affect is not unified,and there are few researches on this relationship in China,and the mechanism behind the relationship is still blank.Secondly,the relationship between future orientation and callous-unemotional traits/negative affect remains unclear.Finally,the existing studies mostly adopt cross-sectional design,which can not draw directional and theoretical conclusions and is not suitable for studying the role of early influencing factors.Given the shortcomings of existing studies,this study combined cross-sectional and longitudinal designs to investigate the relationship between callous-unemotional traits,effortful control,future orientation,and negative affect on middle school students.Specifically,this study is divided into two sub-studies.Study 1 adopts a cross-sectional design using the Inventory of Callous Unemotional Traits(ICU),the effortful control subscale from the short form of the Early Adolescent Temperament Questionnaire-Revised(EATQ-R),the Consideration of Future Consequences scale(CFC),and the Irritability,Depression,Anxiety scale(IDA)to explore the relationship between callous-unemotional traits and negative affect of middle school student,as well as the mediating effect of effortful control and the moderating effect of future orientation in this relationship.Based on study 1,study 2 uses a longitudinal design to further explore the relationship between callous-unemotional traits and negative affect among middle school students and its internal mechanism.The two studies concluded that:(1)There are significant differences in gender,only child,left-behind,and grade of callous-unemotional traits among middle school students.Specifically,the callous-unemotional traits of the boy is higher than the girl,the only child is higher than the non-only child,the left-behind middle school student is higher than the non-left-behind middle school student,and the senior middle school student is higher than the junior middle school student.(2)The negative affect of middle school students differs significantly in gender and grade.The negative affect level of the girl is higher than the boy,and the senior middle school student is higher than the junior middle school student.(3)There are significant differences in gender,left-behind,and grade of middle school students’ effortful control.Boys’ effortful control is higher than girls’,non-left-behind middle school students higher than left-behind middle school students,and junior middle school students higher than senior middle school students.(4)The callous-unemotional traits of middle school student is significantly positively correlated with negative affect and negatively correlated with effortful control and future orientation.At the same time,effortful control and future orientation are both significantly negatively correlated with negative affect.In addition,there was a significant positive correlation between effortful control and future orientation.(5)Effortful control plays a mediating role in the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between callous-unemotional traits and negative affect of middle school students.In other words,the higher the level of callous-unemotional traits of middle school students,the lower the level of effortful control,and in turn,the higher the level of negative affect.(6)Future orientation plays a significant moderating role in the cross-sectional and longitudinal indirect effect of callous-unemotional traits impacting the negative affect of middle school students through effortful control.For high future orientation middle school student,callous-unemotional traits has a stronger effect on the negative affect of middle school student through effortful control.According to the findings,some educational suggestions are put forward for the scientific and effective development of school and family mental health education for middle school students.In order to promote the healthy development of middle school students,it is necessary for the cooperation of middle school students,families,schools,and society,to improve middle school students’ understanding of callous-unemotional traits,effortful control,future orientation,and negative affect.Moreover,educational plans and various regulation/intervention strategies should be formulated to reduce the adverse effects of callous-unemotional traits,enhance middle school student’s effortful control,and help them establish a high level of future orientation,positively face negative affect and play the positive effect of negative affect.