Hostile parenting practices are a mediating process that may explain intergenerational similarity in callous-unemotional traits, a recent study found. Participants included 115 dyads of adolescents (48% female; mean age 13.97 years) and their primary caregivers (87% female; mean age 42.54 years). Measures of callous-unemotional traits, hostile parenting, and household chaos were collected from both adolescents and parents. Researchers found:

• A 2-group structural equation modeling revealed that hostile parenting serves as a mediating process in the association between parent and adolescent callous-unemotional traits, but only in the context of high household chaos.
• Additionally, household chaos may exacerbate the effects of hostile parenting on callous-unemotional traits within adolescents, resulting in heightened vulnerability to intergenerational transmission of callous-unemotional traits.