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With considerable debate concerning the impact of culture on the expression of callous–unemotional (CU) traits, it is unclear whether the core features of CU traits generalize to youth across cultures. This study aimed to examine whether cultural differences are reflected in the core features of CU traits and the associations among these features. Network analysis was employed to identify the core features and to examine the network structure of CU traits operationalized by the Inventory of Callous Unemotional traits (ICU) in four community youth samples from different nations (Australia, N = 190; the UK, N = 437; the USA, N = 330; China, N = 503). The item "Apologizes to people" was identified as a cross-cultural core feature in the ICU network with a greater centrality of this item compared to others in all four samples. In addition, some items were identified as culture-specific core features in the network, differing in their centrality across samples. The network structures of the youth self-report ICU items were moderately similar across samples, while the structures of parent-report items showed substantial differences. These findings have important implications for cross-cultural research on CU traits as well as practical implications for screening and treatment. The core features of ICU appear to be generalizable in youth across cultures, although cultural-specific manifestations should be noted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article cites a study that seeks to explore social deprivation and performance at school in Great Britain. The study discusses an alternative approach of identifying children on the basis of three broad categories of social handicap. For the purpose of this study, an index has been devised and its validity has been tested by correlating degree of handicap with a series of psychological tests and behavior ratings. The study led to the conclusion that a measure of social handicap is not a direct measure of the cultural environment that are considered to have impacts on intellectual and personality development. The study concludes that some school had some adjustment problems although maladjustment of personality may be present only in a minority.