How Child Maltreatment Enduringly Impacts Aggression: A Perspective Based on Personality Solidification

Abstract

It has been shown that early experiences of maltreatment can stably influence an individual’s internal and external aggressive behavior in adulthood. And on what mechanisms do this stability arise? From the perspective of personality solidification theory, this study sample of 1951 primary and secondary school students was used to explore the relationship between child maltreatment, Big Five personality and internalized and externalized aggression, as well as the different mechanisms of differentiation of personality components in child maltreatment on two different natures of aggression, using four scales: The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R), None-suicidal Self-Injury Scale and Aggression Questionnaire. The findings suggest that (1) neuroticism plays the same mediating mechanism in the effect of child maltreatment on the persistence of internalized and externalized aggression; and (2) conscientiousness plays a different mechanism in effect of child maltreatment on both internalized and externalized aggression. Therefore, child maltreatment should be discouraged and the development of a sound personality should be guided, thus reducing future aggressive behavior and promoting child development and social harmony.