Citation

Moore SM, Welsh MC, Peterson E. J. Aggression Maltreat. Trauma 2020; 29(1): 111-128.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/10926771.2019.1637989

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

About one-third of college students report a history of childhood maltreatment (CM) which may lead to heightened arousal and emotional dysregulation; thus, there is reason to hypothesize problems with aggression in this population. We examined the associations between CM and aggression and the associations of each with college outcomes. Three-hundred sixty-nine college participants completed self-report questionnaires on childhood maltreatment, aggression, and college adaptation with 158 meeting criteria for CM history. For all participants, we obtained documented GPA data.

RESULTS demonstrated group differences in aspects of aggression and social and personal-emotional college adjustment. We found significant associations between CM severity and the following: aggression, GPA, and personal-emotional college adjustment. Additionally, aggression was inversely related to various aspects of college adaptation. Participants' self-reports of hostility and anger fully mediated the effect of emotional abuse on college personal-emotional adjustment, and partially mediated the effect of emotional neglect. CM severity, physical aggression and personal-emotional adjustment to college explained a larger proportion of variance in GPA in the CM group than in the Comparison group. These results indicate that a history of CM may give rise to heightened aggression contributing to low college adaptation and achievement, which may put students at risk for attrition.

Language: en

Keywords

achievement; adaptation; aggression; Childhood maltreatment; college; emotional abuse; hostility; neglect