Childhood trauma and aggression in incarcerated males: the parallel mediating effects of empathic concern and...

Childhood trauma is a critical and highly destructive risk factor for aggression. To examine the relationship between childhood trauma and aggression in incarcerated males, this study recruited 739 incarcerated males from Inner Mongolia, China. The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), and the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire (BPAQ) were used to measure childhood trauma, empathic concern and perspective-taking, and aggression, respectively. This study aimed to examine whether empathic concern and perspective-taking have parallel mediating effects in the relationship between childhood trauma and aggression. The results showed that: (1) Childhood trauma was significantly positively correlated with aggression (r = 0.303, p < 0.001), and significantly negatively correlated with both perspective-taking(r = -0.253, p < 0.001) and empathic concern(r = -0.367, p < 0.001); aggression was significantly negatively correlated with both perspective-taking(r = -0.087, p < 0.05) and empathic concern(r = -0.275, p < 0.001). (2) Regression-based mediation analysis indicated a positive association between childhood trauma and aggression (total effect value β = 0.301, p < 0.001). Empathic concern partially mediated this association (indirect effect value β = 0.076, accounting for 25.25% of the total effect value). The indirect effect of perspective-taking was not significant. Drawing on the General Aggression Model and social learning theory, this study found a positive association between childhood trauma and aggression, and this association could be partially explained by empathic concern. The findings enhance the understanding of the complex relationship between them and have implications for intervention practices with incarcerated individuals.