Interventions for Improving Affective Abilities in Adolescents: An Integrative Review Across Community and Clinical Samples of Adolescents

A large body of literature suggests that adolescents with callous-unemotional traits have significant affective impairments, yet few evidence-based interventions exist for this population. The current article reviews the literature on interventions that target emotion recognition and/or perspective-taking abilities among adolescents to identify common processes and features that might help inform further development of treatment strategies for youth with callous-unemotional traits. Thirty-two articles were included and involved samples of typically-developing youth, youth with autism spectrum disorder, youth with antisocial behavior/conduct problems, and youth with disabilities. Overall, interventions for emotion recognition and perspective-taking for adolescents appear promising. Integrating across populations, commonalities among interventions associated with positive outcomes were identified. Recommendations for informing treatment for youth with callous-unemotional traits are discussed.