Violence against a child: mistakes of aggression, indifference and submission and the formation of antisocial personality in women

Abstract

The use of violence against a child is considered to be the cause of the development of an antisocial personality. Three parental mistakes were distinguished: a) aggression, b) indifference, and c) submission to the child, as constituting the feature of violence against a child. The aim of the study was to determine whether there is a relationship between parental violence and girls developing a meta-personality trait typical of antisocial personality, i.e. Disinhibition (Alpha minus), characterized by: high neuroticism, low agreeableness and conscientiousness.The study was performed on a sample of 402 women aged 34 on average. The study was self-report, retrospective. The women were asked to provide answers about their parents' parenting mistakes and their own personality traits.The results revealed that aggression, indifference, and submission form a meaningful meta-trait, meaning that they are correlated and therefore often coexist in parenting behavior. The results confirmed theoretical assumptions. People who experienced more aggression, indifference, and submission from their parents as children show higher scores for antisocial personality traits.