Childhood Trauma and Aggression: The Role of Epistemic Trust

The relation between childhood trauma and aggression is well-established. Yet, empirical findings are inconclusive regarding specific associations between types of childhood trauma and distinct types of aggression, as well as regarding possible mechanisms explaining their association. We examined associations that physical and emotional abuse, physical and emotional neglect, and sexual abuse had with four aggression types according to the Quadripartite Violence Typology, as well as their indirect effects through epistemic trust, mistrust, and credulity in a community sample of 251 adult participants (54.2% women; Mage = 31.33, SD = 11.20). Levels of childhood trauma were positively linked to higher levels of aggression and lower levels of epistemic trust. At the subscale-level, emotional abuse had the most consistent associations. Epistemic mistrust was consistently linked to aggression and helped explain relationships between childhood traumatic experiences and aggression. Accounting for the overlap across types of childhood trauma, only sexual abuse exerted unique effects, while most of the main findings were accounted by the shared variance among physical and emotional abuse and neglect. Childhood trauma emerged as a consistent yet non-specific risk factor for different types of aggression. Mistrust in others as sources of trustworthy information may be one pathway linking early traumatic experiences with later aggressive behavior.