ORIGINAL ARTICLES

Childhood Maltreatment and Aggressive Behavior in College Students: The Chain Mediation Role of Callous-Unemotional Traits and Attitudes Towards Violence

  • LI Chenxing ,
  • LIU Songyu
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  • Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China
*LI Chenxing, 3777867454@qq.com

Online published: 2025-08-08

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was to explore the impact of childhood maltreatment on aggressive behavior in college students and its underlying mechanisms.
Methods: The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form (CTQ-SF), Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire (BPAQ), the Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits (ICUT) and Attitudes Toward Violence Scale (ATVS) were used to survey 1 009 university students, of which 992 valid responses were collected. The collected data were organized using SPSS 26.0, and the chain mediation effect test was conducted using PROCESS macro (Model 6). Significance of the mediation effects was tested with bootstrap resampling (5 000 times) calculation of 95% bias-corrected confidence intervals.
Results: (1) After controlling for age and gender, childhood maltreatment significantly predicted callous-unemotional traits, attitudes towards violence, and aggressive behavior; (2) Callous-unemotional traits and attitudes towards violence partially mediated the relationship between childhood maltreatment and aggressive behavior, with effect sizes of 0.064 and 0.107, respectively. (3) Callous-unemotional traits and attitudes towards violence jointly played a chain mediation role between childhood abuse and aggressive behavior, with an effect size of 0.034.
Conclusion: The results of the study suggest the association between childhood maltreatment and aggressive behavior, as well as the underlying mechanisms. Childhood maltreatment may not only directly affect the occurrence of aggressive behavior but can also influence it through its mediating effects on individual personality traits (callous-unemotional traits) and beliefs (violent attitudes).

Cite this article

LI Chenxing , LIU Songyu . Childhood Maltreatment and Aggressive Behavior in College Students: The Chain Mediation Role of Callous-Unemotional Traits and Attitudes Towards Violence[J]. Psychological Communications, 2025 , 8(1) : 46 -54 . DOI: 10.12100/j.issn.2096-5494.225008

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