Psychological Development and Education ›› 2025, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (4): 528-538.doi: 10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2025.04.09

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A Common Factor Model of Callous-unemotional Traits and Borderline Personality Traits in Adolescents: A Cross-lagged Study

PENG Daju1, CHENG Cheng1, GUO Peiyang2, XU Yang3   

  1. 1. School of Education, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300354;
    2. State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875;
    3. The Hospital of 82ST Group Army PLA, Hebei 071066
  • Published:2025-07-12

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Abstract: On a sample of 450 middle school students who were followed up for one year, the current study examined the bidirectional relationship between sensitivity to threat, social affiliation, and callous-unemotional traits, borderline personality traits by cross-lagged modeling. The results revealed that: (1) The sensitivity to threat and callous-unemotional traits can predict each other; the social affiliation at T1 can negatively predict the callous-unemotional traits at T2; the significant interaction of fearlessness and low social affiliation at T1 can predict the callous-unemotional traits at T2; (2) The sensitivity to threat at T1 can positively predict the callous-unemotional traits at T2, the social affiliation at T1 can negatively predict the callous-unemotional traits at T2; the significant interaction of high sensitivity to threat and high social affiliation at T1 can predict the borderline personality traits at T2. The study reveals the callous-unemotional traits and borderline personality traits share a common etiological trait, which has some theoretical and practical implications for psychological care and preventive intervention for mental health in adolescents.

Key words: adolescent, sensitivity to threat, social affiliation, callous-unemotional traits, borderline personality traits

CLC Number: 

  • B844
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