Abstract
Objective: Childhood adversity has been linked to internalizing and externalizing disorders and personality disorders in adulthood. This study extends that research by examining several personality measures as correlates of childhood adversity.Method: In a college sample self-reports were collected of childhood adversity, several scales relating to personality, and current depression symptoms as a control variable. The personality-related scales were reduced to four latent variables, which we termed anger/aggression, extrinsic focus, agreeableness, and engagement.Results: Controlling for concurrent depressive symptoms and gender, higher levels of reported childhood adversity related to lower agreeableness and to higher anger/aggression and extrinsic focus.Conclusions: Findings suggest that early adversity is linked to personality variables relevant to the building of social connection.
Highlights
Controlling for concurrent depressive symptoms and gender, higher levels of reported childhood adversity related to lower agreeableness and to higher anger/aggression and extrinsic focus
Findings suggest that early adversity is linked to personality variables relevant to the building of social connection
Reports of early adversity related to lower levels of agreeableness and engagement and to higher levels of anger/aggression and extrinsic focus
Summary
What are the long-term consequences of adversity early in life? Early life adversity has been linked to a wide range of internalizing and externalizing psychopathologies in adulthood (Kessler et al, 1997; Anda et al, 2006; Gilbert et al, 2009; Evans et al, 2013; Evans and Cassells, 2014), including diagnosable personality disorders (Luntz and Widom, 1994; Battle et al, 2004), and subclinical features of personality disorders (Luntz and Widom, 1994; Meyer and Carver, 2000; Gibb et al, 2001; Carr and Francis, 2009). A useful framework for considering the question is that of Belsky et al (1991) and Belsky (2012), an evolutionary view which posits that children use early life experience to create a personal model of the availability and predictability of resources, the trustworthiness of other people, and the nature of interpersonal relations—enduring versus disposable. From this perspective, early adversity fosters expectations that resources will be unavailable and other people will be untrustworthy, yielding an opportunistic and even exploitive orientation to relationships (Belsky, 2012). Early adversity may promote a range of social and behavioral tendencies, including aggressiveness, devaluation of social relations (low agreeableness), and an orientation to extrinsic incentives over social ones
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