The learning style of teenagers with callous-unemotional traits

Abstract

Students with callous-unemotional (CU) traits, characterised by callousness/meanness, uncaring and unemotional features, manifest both cognitive and behavioural dysfunctions that can increase the effect of the CU risk factor itself. As a matter of fact, such problems include learning difficulties, lower academic achievement and school dropout. The aim of this paper is to investigate the common pattern of learning styles exhibited by students with CU traits and to propose a discussion about the use of this preference. The study has been conducted on a sample of 689 high school students, 14 to 19 years old, using the Tandem clustering analysis. The investigation highlights a specific learning style pattern for students with CU traits: verbal visual, analytic and individual. The findings will have surely important pedagogical impacts, shifting the problem to how their school results could be improved by encouraging their inclusion.