Effect of Childhood Emotional Abuse on Aggressive Behavior: A Moderated Mediation Model

Abstract

Previous studies have emphasized the effect of childhood emotional abuse on students’ aggressive behavior; however, few studies have examined the effects of personality and gender when studying childhood emotional abuse and aggressive behavior. To fill this gap, the current study aimed to explore the mediating effect of personality and the moderating effect of gender on the relationship between childhood emotional abuse and aggressive behavior among Chinese college students. A sample of 1253 students aged from 18 to 24 years completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, and Buss-Warren Aggression Questionnaire. The results showed that neuroticism and psychoticism partially mediated the relationship between childhood emotional abuse and aggressive behavior. Moreover, a multigroup analysis found that the mediating effect of neuroticism was significant for women but not for men and that the mediating effect of psychoticism was significant for men but not for women. These findings suggest that caregivers should pay more attention to the development of children’s personalities, which may ameliorate the deleterious effect of childhood emotional abuse on aggressive behavior.