VALIDATION OF THE INVENTORY OF CALLOUSUNEMOTIONAL TRAITS IN THE NIGERIAN SAMPLE

Abstract

The focus of the research was to revalidate the Inventory of Callous-unemotional Traits (ICU) by Frick (2004) in Nigeria so that meaningful research on the construct can be done using the instrument. Two hundred and ninety five adolescents drawn from secondary schools in Nsukka, Enugu state who were between 13 to 18years participated in the study.
Construct validation of the questionnaire was done by means of Exploratory Factor
Analyses, Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFA), calculations of Cronbach alpha, split-half reliability and correlations of within construct. Also ICU was correlated with other
constructs such as aggression, bullying and pro-social behavior. The results showed that the
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) for the exploratory factor analysis is .79 and the scree plot showed three significant factors. Thefit indices for the Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFA) reached acceptable ranges, RMSEA =.03, CFI = .96 and NNFI =.96. The Cronbach's alpha for the total scale was. 75 and the alphasfor the subscales were. 71, .71 & .56for Uncaring, Callous, and Unemotional respectively. The split-half reliability result was good r = .60. The
correlations of within construct and between constructs showed that ICU has convergent, discriminant and predictive validity in the Nigeria sample. The research shows that the questionnaire has sound psychometric properties.