Child Maltreatment and Aggression: The Mediating Role of Moral Disengagement, Emotion Regulation, and Emotional Callousness among Juvenile Offenders

Abstract

Child maltreatment has been linked consistently to the development of aggressive behavior. However, not all maltreated youth later demonstrate increased aggression. The present study examined two avenues of inquiry to explain this observed heterogeneity in a sample of 470 serious juvenile offenders enrolled in a prospective longitudinal study. Official reports of maltreatment history were obtained from the Department of Human Services (DHS) in Philadelphia providing information about the nature and incidence of abuse and neglect in childhood of the study participants. The first line of inquiry explored if particular maltreatment subtypes, including physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, and emotional maltreatment, as well as the severity and frequency of these maltreatment types, was related to increased aggression in adolescence. The second line of inquiry used structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine the impact of three mediational factors, namely, emotion regulation, moral disengagement, and emotional callousness, on the maltreatment-aggression relation. I expected that not only would maltreatment in childhood be related to increased aggression in adolescence, but that this relation would be mediated by disruptions in emotional and cognitive development. In addition, I expected that these underlying mechanisms would be specific to particular subtypes of maltreatment. As expected, child maltreatment was related to increased aggression among youth. Physical abuse and emotional maltreatment emerged as the two maltreatment subtypes that best predicted aggression, whereas neglect and sexual abuse were not related to increased aggression. The study findings also suggested that higher severity and frequency of maltreatment contributes to increased aggression. Additionally, physical abuse and emotional maltreatment appeared to have a multiplicative effect, in that the combination of these two maltreatment subtypes resulted in the highest levels of aggression among youth in this study. Finally, as hypothesized, poor self-regulation mediated the relation between physical abuse and aggression, while heightened moral disengagement mediated the relation between emotional maltreatment and aggression.