Objective: Previous studies have found that college students with left-behind experience presented high levels of aggression, and childhood trauma may be one of the contributors. This study aimed to examine the relationship between childhood trauma and aggression in Chinese college students, and to explore the mediating role of self-compassion and the moderating role of left-behind experience. Method: 629 Chinese college students completed the questionnaires at two time points: childhood trauma and self-compassion were assessed at baseline, and aggression was assessed at baseline and 3-month follow-up. Results: Among these participants, 391 (62.2%) had left-behind experience. Emotional neglect of college students with left-behind experience in childhood was significantly higher than that of college students without such experience. Childhood trauma predicted aggression after 3 months among college students. Self-compassion mediated the predictive effect of childhood trauma on aggression after controlling for gender, age, only-child status, and family residential status. However, no moderating effect of left-behind experience was found. Conclusions: These findings indicated that childhood trauma is an important predictor of aggression among Chinese college students regardless of their left-behind experience. The reason for the higher aggression of left-behind college students may be that their left-behind situation increased the possibility of childhood trauma. In addition, whether in college students with left-behind experience or without such experience, childhood trauma may increase aggression by reducing the level of self-compassion. Furthermore, interventions incorporating components to improve self-compassion could be effective in decreasing aggression of college students who perceived high childhood trauma.
Clinical Impact StatementThis study found that childhood trauma was one of the important contributors to the high aggression of Chinese college students, regardless of their left-behind experience, and left-behind experience did not increase the negative impact of childhood trauma on aggression. The reason for the high level of aggression in Chinese college students may be that the left-behind experience increases the possibility of childhood trauma. In addition, in college students with childhood trauma, decreasing their cognitive model of self-criticism and cultivating a caring and nonjudgmental attitude toward themselves are conducive to reducing their level of aggression.
The harm of childhood parental neglect to emerging adults' maladjustment has garnered empirical support. For college students who have left‐behind experience (LBE), this relationship is rarely discussed and the psychological process underlying this relationship is not well understood. Using a longitudinal study and guided by the Risky Families model, this study aimed to explore the mediating roles of anxious attachment and perceived social support in the link between parental neglect and maladjustment of LBE college students. We used two‐wave longitudinal data, with a time lag of 3 months, collected among Chinese college students with LBE in Chongqing (N = 391). The results revealed that parental neglect in wave one was positively associated with maladjustment (depression, anxiety, and stress) in wave two. Anxious attachment and perceived social support in wave two separately mediated the relationship between parental neglect in wave one and maladjustment in wave two. Anxious attachment and perceived social support in wave two only sequentially mediated the pathway from parental neglect to later depression. These findings emphasize the importance of anxious attachment and social support in resilience and have significant implications for LBE college students' social work practice in China.
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