Is the association between childhood maltreatment and aggressive behavior mediated by hostile attribution bias in women? A discordant twin and sibling study

Abstract

Understanding the mechanisms behind aggressive behavior (AGG) is vital so that effective prevention and intervention strategies can be developed. Maltreated children are hypothesized to be prone to social information processing biases, such as hostile attribution bias (HAB), which, in turn, may increase the likelihood of behaving aggressively. The first aim of the present study was to replicate findings regarding associations between childhood maltreatment (CM), HAB, and aggression in a population‐based sample of Finnish female twins and their sisters (N = 2,167). However, these associations might not be causal but instead confounded by familial factors, shared between the variables. The second aim was, thus, to test the associations when potential confounding by familial (genetic or common environmental) effects were controlled for using a multilevel discordant twin and sibling design within (a) 379 pairs of twins (npairs = 239) or siblings (npairs = 140), and (b) within the 131 monozygotic (MZ) twin pairs. Consistent with previous studies, HAB mediated the association between CM and AGG when familial confounding was uncontrolled. No support was found for the mediation when controlling for familial confounding. Between‐pair associations were found between CM and AGG, and between CM and HAB. In addition, within‐pair associations were found between HAB and AGG, and between CM and AGG, however, these were nonsignificant in the discordant MZ analysis, offering the most stringent control of familial confounding. The results indicate the necessity of taking familial confounding into account when investigating the development of AGG.

Hostility Bias

“…A long history of research has shown a robust association between hostility biases and higher levels of aggressive behavior (for review see Bushman 2016;De Castro and van Dijk 2017;De Castro et al 2002;Dodge 2006;Mellentin et al 2015;Smeijers et al 2019;Tuente et al 2019;Verhoef et al 2019). This relation has been found among children, adolescents, and adults in the general population, as well as in clinical samples, which is confirmed by more recent studies (Ding et al 2022;Gasse et al 2020;Hartmann et al 2020;Johansson et al 2021;Quan et al 2021;Quan et al 2019;Singh 2020;Su et al 2021;Subra 2021;van den Berg and Lansu 2020;Verhoef et al 2021b;Zhao et al 2021;Zhu et al 2020). The association between hostility biases and aggression is assumed to be stronger for individuals displaying more severe forms of aggressive behavior, although less severe characteristics associated with aggression such as irritability, anger rumination, state and trait anger, hostility, and impulsivity are also found to be related to higher levels of hostility biases (Deveney et al 2019;Dodge 2006;Perhamus and Ostrov 2021;Quan et al 2021;Ripley et al 2019;Smeijers et al 2019;Tuente et al 2019;Zhu et al 2020).…”

Childhood trauma and psychopathy: The moderating role of resilience.

“…In contrast, at high levels of resilience, childhood traumatic experiences were unrelated with scores of psychopathic traits. Overall, these findings suggest that, in the absence of resilient characteristics, exposure to traumatic experiences during childhood are associated with personality traits that are fundamentally antagonistic and hostile (DeLisi, Drury, et al, 2021;Garofalo et al, 2019;Gillespie et al, 2023;Meloy, 1992;Schimmenti et al, 2015); potentially these traits may represent a maladaptive form of coping with the traumatic experience (Buck et al, 2012;Johansson et al, 2021;Klein Tuente et al, 2019;Meloy, 1992). Allowing for some degree of speculation about potential developmental pathways based on a cross-sectional snapshot, these findings suggest that resilience may buffer against the development of psychopathic traits, such that individuals who experience childhood traumatic experiences but possess average-to-high levels of resilience are less likely to develop psychopathic traits.…”

Features of Early Childhood Memories: Does Quality of Memory act as a Potential Buffer Against the Effects of Childhood Maltreatment on Aggression in Young Adulthood?

“…To address this gap, one meta-analysis that includes 34 studies with female-only samples found evidence for a cycle of aggression and violence in women by observing a small but significant overall positive association between exposure between childhood maltreatment and a broad range of aggressive behaviours (Augsburger, Basler, & Maercker, 2019). Additionally, researchers have found evidence linking the underlying cognitive mechanism of hostile attribution bias with childhood maltreatment and aggressive behaviours in women (Johansson, Rötkönen, & Jern, 2020). In this regard, studying HAB in the context of aggression in women is particularly relevant -research shows that women describe more intentionality (and thus higher HAB) towards hostile scenarios than men (Zajenkowska et al, 2020), thus having unique implications for aggressive behaviour.…”