RT Article
T1 Association Between Child Maltreatment and Aggression in Chinese Early Adolescents: The Mediating Role of Irritability
JF Journal of interpersonal violence
VO 39
IS 1/2
SP 393
OP 413
A1 Xu, Baoyu
A1 Li, Yonghan
A1 Li, Yuan
A1 Xie, Jinyu
A1 Ding, Han
A1 Wang, Jun
A1 Su, Puyu
A1 Wang, Gengfu
A2 Li, Yonghan
A2 Li, Yuan
A2 Xie, Jinyu
A2 Ding, Han
A2 Wang, Jun
A2 Su, Puyu
A2 Wang, Gengfu
LA English
YR 2024
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1873013035
AB Child maltreatment (CM) is a major global public health issue, and a strong association exists between CM and aggression. However, the underlying mechanism of this association has not been understood to date. The objective of this study was to explore the mediating role of irritability in the association between CM and aggression in Chinese early adolescents. A cross-sectional study was conducted using a self-report questionnaire to evaluate the levels of CM, aggression, and irritability in 5,724 middle school students from the Anhui Province, China. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesis of the mediating effect of irritability on the relationship between CM and aggression. We further investigated gender differences in this association using multiple group analyses. CM was positively related to both irritability and aggression, and irritability was positively associated with aggression (p < .01). The mediating effects of irritability between CM and aggression were significant (β = .107, 95% confidence intervals [CI]: 0.077–0.133, p < .05). Males had a higher indirect effect size of the pathway from CM to aggression via irritability compared with females. Overall, irritability was a crucial mediator in the relationship between CM and aggression in Chinese adolescents, and males were more prone to engage in aggression compared with females through the pathway of irritability. Therefore, early irritability characteristics should be carefully monitored in adolescents, and they should be provided adequate support to acquire critical emotion regulation skills.
K1 mediating effects
K1 early adolescents
K1 Aggression
K1 irritability
K1 child maltreatment
DO 10.1177/08862605231197141