Gender moderates psychopathic traits' relations with self-reported childhood maltreatment

Abstract

Some cross-sectional research has revealed that childhood maltreatment is a robust statistical predictor of the behavioral, but not affective and interpersonal, features of psychopathy. Using a large sample of undergraduates (N=1169), we sought to (a) expand upon previous research by examining the relations between childhood maltreatment and psychopathic traits, and (b) clarify the role of gender in these relations. Consistent with predictions, disinhibition and meanness were significantly positively associated with self-reported childhood maltreatment, whereas boldness was generally unrelated. Gender moderated the relations between psychopathy features and childhood maltreatment in two ways. The relations between boldness and childhood neglect were negative and small to moderate in males but near zero in females, while the relations between disinhibition and meanness and childhood maltreatment were stronger for males than females. We discuss the multiple conceivable interpretations of the main effects, call for genetically-informed research to better adjudicate between these possibilities, and raise the possibility that psychopathy's relations with childhood maltreatment depend on gender.