Childhood Maltreatment Is Associated With Aggression Among Male Juvenile Delinquents in China: The Mediating Effects of Callous-Unemotional Traits and Self-Control

Exploring the Nexus of Adverse Childhood Experiences and Aggression in Children and Adolescents: A Scoping Review

A strong relation between adverse childhood experiences (ACE) and aggression has been established in adult populations, with less research examining this relation earlier in development. The purpose of this study was to complete a scoping review of the current evidence available on the relation between ACE and aggression and subtypes of aggression within a child and adolescent population. Inclusion criteria for the review included publications in English between 1998 and 2023, use of a child/adolescent population, and peer-review and quantitative publications. Databases searched included PubMed, APA PsycINFO, Scopus, and EBSCO, and search terms included words related to ACE and aggression. Initial selection was based on title and abstract, with 32 papers meeting eligibility criteria for inclusion. Two authors extracted the relevant characteristics of the studies independently and conferred on any disagreements. The overall findings from the scoping review suggest that there is a strong link between aggression and ACE; however, this link may not be as strong for specific subtypes of aggression. Additionally, characteristics of ACE may play role in understanding this relation, but little research is available within a child and adolescent population. A few studies have attempted to examine potential mediators and moderators of this relation; however, none have been replicated within a child and adolescent population. The findings from this review support the need for additional research in this area and identify significant gaps in the literature that need to be addressed within a child and adolescent population.

Intergenerational cascade processes from parental childhood adversity to child emotional and behavioral problems

BACKGROUND

Parental adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) may transmit to the next generation and influence children's emotional and behavioral problems. Relatively little evidence exists on the underlying pathways of this intergenerational transmission at the family- and individual-level.

OBJECTIVE

This study examined the intergenerational cascade processes of parental ACEs on children's emotional and behavioral problems via family cohesion, children's ACEs, and children's self-control.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING

283 children (52 % male, Mage = 10.47 years) and their parents (61.1 % mothers, Mage = 38.62 years) were recruited for a 2-month longitudinal study with surveys administered at three time points.

METHOD

Mediation models examined the intergenerational effects of parental ACEs (T1/T3) and family cohesion (T1) as reported by parents, and children's ACEs (T1) and children's self-control (T2) as reported by children, on children's internalizing and externalizing problems (T3) as reported by parents.

RESULTS

Family cohesion, children's ACEs, and children's self-control sequentially mediated the link between parental ACEs and children's externalizing problems (indirect effect = 0.004, 95 % CI [0.001, 0.014]). Parental ACEs were directly linked with children's internalizing problems (β = 0.191, SE = 0.075, p = .011).

CONCLUSIONS

Findings demonstrated intergenerational cascades of distal and proximal risk processes from parental ACEs to children's behavioral problems. These findings have implications for future interventions on children's externalizing problems that aim at improving family cohesion and children's self-control for families exposed to childhood adversity.

The Association Between Child Abuse and Aggressive Behavior: A Three-Level Meta-Analysis

Child abuse is considered to be an essential factor in the development of aggressive behavior. The intensity of the positive relations between child abuse and aggressive behavior differed considerably among researches despite the fact that abundant studies have observed this relation. According to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) approach, a three-level meta-analysis was employed to obtain reliable estimates for the sizes of effects and investigate some potential moderators of the relation between child abuse and aggressive behavior. The present study obtained 51 studies (30,566 participants; 680 effect sizes) through performing the detailed literature search. It was found that child abuse was positively associated with aggressive behavior in the current study. In addition, the present meta-analysis observed significant moderating effects for type of child abuse, culture, measurement of child abuse, and publication year in the association between child abuse and aggressive behavior. This study suggests that child abuse is a predictor for the development of aggressive behavior in humans. Moreover, child abuse is an important aspect for consideration in efforts toward strengthening of interventions targeting individuals' aggressive behavior.

The Mediating Role of Callous-Unemotional Traits in the Relationship between Parental Aggression and Behavioral Problems among Chinese Preschoolers

It is well known that aggressive parenting is associated with behavioral problems among Western children in their early childhood, but this has rarely been examined among Chinese preschoolers. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between aggressive parenting, callous-unemotional traits (CU traits), and behavioral problems among a large Chinese preschool sample. Data were collected in Wuhu city, China, from 1879 preschoolers (54% of whom were male) with a mean age of 65.66 months (standard deviation = 9.41). Parents provided information about the frequency of aggressive parenting, children's behaviors, and demographic characteristics via an online questionnaire. Mediation models were applied to analyze the associations between aggressive parenting, CU traits, and behavioral problems. Preschoolers' age, gender, and family socioeconomic status were considered as covariates. The findings of our study revealed that higher frequencies of parental psychological and physical aggression were associated with high levels of CU traits, which were related to increased levels of preschoolers' behavioral problems. This study extends previous studies by revealing a positive relationship between aggressive parenting and behavioral problems among Chinese preschoolers via CU traits and highlights the risks of aggressive parenting. Interventions for improving parenting strategies and lessening callous-unemotional traits should be developed to help reduce behavioral problems.

The association between callous-unemotional traits and suicide ideation among youth: A conditional process analysis

BACKGROUND

The relationship between callous-unemotional (CU) traits (the affective facet of psychopathy and the psychopathy that occurs during childhood and adolescence) and suicide ideation (SI) remains unclear. The mechanisms underlying this association still have a gap in the literature. The aims of this study were to determine whether and how callous-unemotional traits were associated with suicide ideation, and to evaluate the mediating effect of negative affect (includes irritability, depression, and anxiety) and the moderating effect of future orientation on the association.

METHODS

Data were extracted from a longitudinal study involving middle and high school students, with 1,913 students (55.3% girls) aged 11 to 19 years (14.9 ± 1.6 years) completing a self-reported online survey. The conditional process analysis was examined using Mplus 8.3.

RESULTS

We found that callous-unemotional traits positively predicted youths' current suicide ideation, with the observed positive relationship partly mediated by negative affect. However, callous-unemotional traits did not predict the worst-point suicide ideation, which indicated the connection fully mediated by negative affect. Furthermore, future orientation moderated these indirect effects.

LIMITATIONS

Use of self-report measures and cross-sectional design.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings provided evidence for current debates and conflicting conclusions, and set the foundation for future research, as well as implied the important intervention goals for reducing suicide ideation in youth.

Disruptive behaviors, antisocial attitudes, and aggression in young offenders: Comparison of Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) typologies

BACKGROUND

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) are associated with many deleterious outcomes in young offenders. There is a dearth of studies examining its effects on young offenders' antisocial attitudes, disruptive behaviors and aggression, risk factors for delinquency and reoffending.

OBJECTIVE

This study examined ACE patterns and their association with the above factors in young offenders.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING

1130 youth offenders (964 males; M_age = 17.57 years), provided self-reports on ACEs, antisocial attitudes, disruptive behavior ratings and aggression.

METHOD

Latent Class Analysis was performed on 12 self-reported ACEs, followed by Analyses of Covariance on each of the measures.

RESULTS

Four classes - Low ACE, Indirect Victims, Abusive Environment, and Polyvictimized - were identified. Polyvictimized youths had the highest levels of conduct problems (M = 70.35, ps < .05) and proactive aggression (M = 0.45, ps < .05) but did not differ from youths in Abusive Environment in reactive aggression (M = 1.02, p = .69), oppositional problems (M = 65.15, p = .18), and antisocial attitudes (M = 26.95, p = .21). Indirect Victims had lower levels of conduct problems (M = 64.80, p < .05) and antisocial attitudes (M = 24.35, p < .05) than Polyvictimized youths but higher levels of these outcomes than the Low ACE group.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings showed that ACEs patterns vary in their effects on antisociality and disruptive behaviors. The novel finding was that childhood victimization does not have to be direct, as indirect victimization significantly impacted factors important to delinquency and reoffending.

Psychometric Properties of the Child Neglect Scale and Risk Factors for Child Neglect in Chinese Young Males Who Were Incarcerated

Child neglect is an important risk factor for juvenile delinquency, while few studies have examined child neglect in Chinese juvenile delinquents due to the lack of appropriate measurement tools. The Child Neglect Scale is a 38-item retrospective self-report scale that specifically focuses on child neglect. The current study, therefore, aimed to examine the psychometric properties of the Child Neglect Scale and risk factors for child neglect among Chinese juvenile delinquents. A total of 212 young males who were incarcerated participated in this study, and the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, Child Neglect Scale, and basic information questionnaire were used to collect data. The results showed that the Child Neglect Scale has good reliability, and the mean inter-item correlation coefficients reach accepted standards. Moreover, it is found that child neglect is prevalent among Chinese young males who are incarcerated, with communication neglect occurring most frequently. Low levels of family monthly income and rural residency are risk factors for child neglect. The average scores of security neglect, physical neglect, and communication neglect of the participants respectively show statistically significant differences according to the type of major caregivers. Findings suggest that the Child Neglect Scale may be used to measure child neglect with four independent subscales in Chinese young males who are incarcerated.

Association between childhood maltreatment and callous-unemotional traits in youth: A meta-analysis

Callous-unemotional (CU) traits (i.e., lack of remorse or guilt, callous lack of empathy, deficient concern for the feelings of others) in youth with conduct problems confer risk for a particularly severe and persistent form of antisocial behaviour. Previous research has linked childhood maltreatment as a potential risk factor for CU traits, both primary (i.e., genetically underpinned) and secondary (i.e., environmentally influenced) variants, but findings have been inconsistent, and the association has not yet been tested in a meta-analysis. To address this gap, we conducted a meta-analysis to assess the nature and strength of the associations between childhood maltreatment and its subtypes with CU traits and potential variants (i.e., primary and secondary CU traits). A systematic search identified 29 eligible studies including 9,894 participants (42% female) between the ages of 3 and 18 years (Mage=14.22 years, SD = 1.07). Results revealed a significant moderate positive association between childhood maltreatment and CU traits. All subtypes of maltreatment bar sexual abuse were significantly associated with CU traits. However, it was not possible to compare primary and secondary CU traits directly due to inconsistencies in how they are defined. The limitations posed by current research signal the need for clinical and operational guidelines on how to define primary and secondary CU traits. Additionally, prospective longitudinal, genetically informed research is needed to clarify if maltreatment is a causal risk factor for CU traits.

Emotional Recognition Training Enhances Attention to Emotional Stimuli Among Male Juvenile Delinquents

Objective

Juvenile delinquents have deficits in emotional recognition that might play a critical role in the development of aggression. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of emotional recognition training and its consequences on emotional attention and aggression.

Methods

Seventy-three male juvenile delinquents were randomly assigned to two groups. One group was the modification group, which received eight days of training on an emotional recognition task. The purpose of the training was to modify interpretative biases in emotion recognition to encourage the perception of happiness over anger in ambiguous expressions. The other group was the waitlist group, which did not perform a task and continued with their usual programme. Before and after the training, participants completed the aggression questionnaire (AQ) and two behavioural tasks, including the emotional recognition task and a visual search task with happy and angry faces as targets.

Results

The modification group recognized more faces as happy after emotional recognition training than the waitlist group. Furthermore, the hostility in the modification group decreased significantly. Importantly, emotional recognition training further affected attention to emotional faces as participants responded faster in searching for happy and angry faces after training.

Conclusion

Emotional recognition training could modify juvenile delinquents' emotional recognition, enhance their visual attention to emotional faces and reduce hostility.

Emotions and sensory processing in adolescents: The effect of childhood traumatic experiences

Reportedly, maltreated children are more likely to have a mental illness, interpersonal violence, and other social behavior problems than those without trauma experience. However, there are few studies regarding childhood trauma and sensory processing relationship and the relationship is not clear until today. To verify the association between childhood trauma emotions and sensory processing in adolescents is the aim of this study. To gather traumatized adolescents, we conducted survey questionnaires from six alternative schools and one general high school in South Korea. A total of 260 students has answered the questions: trauma/parenting/school adaptation factors, childhood trauma, the difficulty of emotion regulation, positive and negative emotional measure, shortened self-control measure, and adolescent/adult sensory profile. We analyzed linear regression between childhood trauma and other emotions/sensory processing in total subjects and conducted group comparisons between general school and alternative school. With childhood trauma, negative emotion, emotion dysregulation, sensory profile including subscales showed positive correlations. A significant negative correlation was observed between the self-control scale and childhood trauma score. In group comparison results, trauma factors, primary caregiver, custody transfer, and school life adaptation factors were significantly higher in alternative school students (p < 0.002) while the parental relationship did not show a difference. Childhood trauma score, vision, and tactile were significantly higher in alternative school students. To summarize, our results present a direct effect of childhood trauma on sensory function in adolescents and was confirmed the importance of family environments in adolescents.

Gene-environment interactions between CREB1 and childhood maltreatment on aggression among male Chinese adolescents

Both the genetic and environmental factors may affect aggression susceptibility. However, the conclusions of these associations remain discrepant. In addition, studies that explored the association between CREB1 and aggression were meager. The aim of our present study was to assess whether CREB1 polymorphisms were related to aggression and also to explore the interactive effects of CREB1 variants and childhood maltreatment on aggression. A total of 488 individuals with aggressive behavior and 488 controls were recruited. Aggression and childhood maltreatment were surveyed by standardized self-administered questionnaires. Buccal cells were also obtained and genotyping was conducted using SNPscan. Logistic regressions were applied to investigate both individual effects of CREB1 polymorphisms and the interactive influences with childhood maltreatment on aggression. We found that adolescents who carried the rs4675690 T allele in CREB1 showed a higher level of aggression compared with those who carried wildtype genotypes (CC) under the dominant model (OR = 1.67, 95% CI, 1.16–2.40) after controlling for age and childhood maltreatment. Moreover, we also found that rs4675690 T allele had a synergic additive interaction with childhood sexual abuse and emotional neglect on aggression. The significant interactive effects of CREB1 polymorphisms and childhood maltreatment on aggression were reported for the first time.

Family Economic Strain and Adolescent Aggression during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Roles of Interparental Conflict and Parent-Child Conflict

Although the link from family economic strain to adolescent aggression has frequently been hypothesized, the results are mixed. Both interparental conflict and parent-child conflict are considered to be potential mediators of this link. However, the empirical evidence supporting this proposition is lacking. The present study investigated the direct effect of family economic strain on adolescent aggression as well as indirect effects through interparental conflict and parent-child conflict. Based on multi-informant data from 971 families with a child in middle and high schools in Y City, in Shanxi Province, structural equation modeling is conducted to examine the proposed theoretical model. Findings show that family economic strain has no significant direct impact on adolescent aggression. Interparental conflict and parent-child conflict mediate the link between family economic strain and adolescent aggression simultaneously and sequentially. This study expands current literature and deepens our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the relationship between family economic strain and adolescent aggression. Implications for policies and interventions to reduce the risk of adolescent aggression are discussed.

Bold, mean and disinhibited: getting specific about the mediating role of self-control and antisocial outcomes in youth

Self-control and psychopathy are correlated with antisocial behaviors among diverse samples, and a spate of recent studies examined their direct associations with criminal outcomes. However, research has largely overlooked mediation effects between psychopathy, self-control and deviant outcomes. The current study examined self-control mediation effects related to the triarchic psychopathy construct and juvenile delinquency, crime seriousness, conduct disorder (CD), and aggression outcomes. The sample consisted of N = 567 (M = 15.91 years, SD = 0.99, range = 14-18 years) southern-European youth from Portugal. Study design was cross-sectional, quantitative and non-experimental. Mediation analysis using path analysis procedures indicated that low self-control mediates the relation between the Boldness, Disinhibition and Meanness factors of the triarchic psychopathy construct and the delinquency, crime seriousness, CD and aggression outcomes. Findings suggest that self-control is a mediator of triarchic psychopathic features and diverse externalizing behavior outcomes, which adds specificity to their interrelationship as general predictors of antisocial behavior.

The Role of Low Self-Control as a Mediator between Trauma and Antisociality/Criminality in Youth

Trauma exposure and low self-control are robustly associated with youth antisocial/criminal problems, but the interrelation of these constructs is unclear when taking into account both traumatic events and reactions. The objective of the present study is to examine self-control mediation effects related to trauma and juvenile delinquency, conduct disorder, crime seriousness, and aggression outcomes. The sample consisted of N = 388 male youth from Portugal (age, M = 16.01 years, SD = 1.03, age range = 13–18 years). Path analysis procedures revealed that self-control partially mediates the relation between trauma events and the examined outcomes and fully mediates the relation between trauma reactions and the examined outcomes. Research on youth trauma should examine both trauma events and trauma reactions because they have differential effects on low self-control and antisocial/criminal outcomes.