Department of Psychology, Shandong Normal University, No. 1, Da Xue Road, Jinan City, Shandong Province, 250358, China.
Department of Professional Basic Courses, Shandong Police College, No.54 Wenhua East Road, Jinan City, Shandong Province, 250014, China.
Child Abuse Negl. 2021 Jul;117:105085. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2021.105085. Epub 2021 May 13.
Adolescents in China suffer a high prevalence of childhood maltreatment, which has been shown to facilitate juvenile violent delinquency. Studies have implicated a relationship between callous-unemotional traits and both juvenile violent delinquency and childhood maltreatment. However, the complex relationships among these three variables have not yet been examined.
This study aimed to investigate the mediating role of callous-unemotional traits in the relationship between different types of childhood maltreatment and juvenile violent delinquency.
Childhood maltreatment and callous-unemotional traits were assessed in a sample of 441 juvenile violent offenders and a control group of 543 non-offenders, using questionnaires.
After controlling for socio-economic status, a mediation analysis determined the direct, indirect, and total effect of the mediation of callous-unemotional traits in the relationship between childhood maltreatment and juvenile violent delinquency.
The results showed no mediation of callous-unemotional traits in the relationship between physical abuse and juvenile violent delinquency. However, callous-unemotional traits mediated the relationship between sexual abuse and juvenile violent delinquency as well as between emotional neglect and juvenile violent delinquency.
Our findings suggest that sexual abuse has both a direct and indirect effect on juvenile violent delinquency via callous-unemotional traits, whereas childhood emotional neglect had only an indirect effect on juvenile violent delinquency.
中国青少年普遍遭受较高程度的儿童期虐待，而儿童期虐待被证实与青少年暴力犯罪有关。研究表明，冷酷无情特质与青少年暴力犯罪和儿童期虐待之间存在关联。然而，这三个变量之间的复杂关系尚未得到检验。
本研究旨在探讨冷酷无情特质在不同类型儿童期虐待与青少年暴力犯罪之间关系中的中介作用。
使用问卷评估了 441 名青少年暴力罪犯和 543 名非罪犯样本中的儿童期虐待和冷酷无情特质。
在控制社会经济地位后，通过中介分析确定了冷酷无情特质在儿童期虐待与青少年暴力犯罪关系中的直接、间接和总效应的中介作用。
结果显示，冷酷无情特质在身体虐待与青少年暴力犯罪之间的关系中没有中介作用。然而，冷酷无情特质中介了性虐待与青少年暴力犯罪之间以及情感忽视与青少年暴力犯罪之间的关系。
我们的研究结果表明，性虐待对青少年暴力犯罪既有直接影响，也有通过冷酷无情特质的间接影响，而儿童期情感忽视对青少年暴力犯罪只有间接影响。
