Citation

Xiang Y, Cao Y, Dong X. Pers. Individ. Dif. 2020; 160: e109924.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.paid.2020.109924

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

It has been found that childhood maltreatment can lead to immoral behaviors, and the occurrence of immoral behaviors is mainly caused by low moral sensitivity. Therefore, the current study explored the relationship between childhood maltreatment and moral sensitivity and the mediation mechanism of perceived social support based on schema theory. We administered the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS), the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) and an experiment to measure the moral sensitivity to a nonclinical sample of Chinese university students (N = 383). The results indicated that childhood maltreatment negatively predicted moral sensitivity, and perceived social support played a partial mediating role. Multiple mediation analysis showed that only the significant others' support component of MSPSS acted as a mediator betweenchildhood maltreatment and moral sensitivity. The results of the current study are helpful to understand individual moral behaviors and provide theoretical basis for the intervention and mitigation of the negative effects of childhood maltreatment.

Language: en

Keywords

Childhood maltreatment; Moral sensitivity; Perceived social support; Schema theory