Moderating effects of childhood maltreatment on associations between social information processing and adult aggression

Abstract

Background Associations between early life maltreatment, social information processing (SIP) and aggression in childhood and adolescence have been widely documented. Few studies have examined the importance of childhood maltreatment independent of SIP in the etiology of adult aggression. Furthermore, moderating effects of childhood maltreatment on the SIP–aggression links have not been explored. Method Hierarchical, multi-level models were fitted to data from n=2752 twins aged 20–55 years from the PennTwins Cohort. Adult aggression was assessed with the Life History of Aggression questionnaire. Childhood maltreatment was measured using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. Two aspects of SIP were examined : hostile attribution biases (HAB) ; negative emotional responses (NER). Results Childhood maltreatment was positively correlated with adult aggression, independently of HAB and NER. In addition, childhood maltreatment moderated the relationships between both aspects of SIP and adult aggression. Specifically, the relationship between NER and aggression was stronger among individuals with higher levels of childhood maltreatment and NER was not associated with aggression for adults who experienced low levels of childhood maltreatment. Moderating effects of childhood maltreatment on the NER–aggression link were supported for total childhood maltreatment, emotional neglect and emotional abuse. In contrast, HAB was more strongly associated with adult aggression at lower levels of emotional abuse and physical neglect. Conclusions The current study provides insight into the mechanisms by which early life experiences influence adult aggression. Our findings suggest that childhood maltreatment may not only lead to increased levels of aggression in adulthood but may also modify the associations between SIP and adult aggression.

Mentalization Mediates the Relationship between Early Maltreatment and Potential for Violence in Adolescence

“…Therefore, the well-documented influence of different forms of childhood maltreatment on potential for violence was replicated [1,7,8,25,31,84]. Against our hypothesis in the present analysis, attachment was not influenced by childhood maltreatment and did not influence potential for violence.…”

“…Childhood maltreatment is, among other consequences, closely linked to the development of a heightened potential for violence [6,7,8]. Specifically, experiences of childhood maltreatment are associated with the development of an increased level of aggressive behavior in the maltreated child or adolescent [9,25] and an increased risk of developing CD [2,7,26]. While some authors argue that physical punishment exerted by loving parents does not entail negative consequences for the child [27,28], the present study does not differentiate between physical maltreatment and physical punishment since the main body of research emphasizes the negative outcomes of physical punishment or abuse, respectively, with regard to externalizing behavior and heightened aggression [1,29,30,31,32].…”

Domestic violence offending behaviors: A review of the literature examining childhood exposure, implicit theories, trait aggression and anger rumination as predictive factors

“…Other researchers have examined two main types of social information processing, hostile attribution biases and negative emotional responses that influence aggression in adulthood (Chen, Coccaro, Lee & Jacobson, 2012). They found that individuals who had experienced more severe childhood maltreatment and emotional abuse/neglect were aggressive in adulthood when they reported having more negative emotional responses, in comparison to those who experienced little/no abuse.…”

Linkages between childhood emotional abuse and marital satisfaction: The mediating role of empathic accuracy for hostile emotions

“…Attributions stem from our attempts to understand the causes of events (Heider, 1958), and early maltreatment has been shown to influence one’s attributional style (Buser & Hackney, 2012; Chen, Coccaro, Lee, & Jacobson, 2012). Research to date has focused on the effects of childhood emotional abuse on negative cognitive styles mostly as they pertain to deleterious evaluations about oneself (Gibb & Abela, 2008).…”