Resilience buffers against antisocial tendencies in the aftermath of childhood traumatic experiences

What is it about?

In this study we examined whether experiencing childhood trauma was related to personality traits that render individuals more prone to antisocial, aggressive or otherwise antagonistic behaviors. Specifically, we focused on a personality construct, psychopathy, that entails personal characteristics such as lack of remorse and guilt, callousness, grandiosity, fearlesseness, impulsivity, irresponsibility, and poor anger control. We showed that these characteristics tended to be higher among individuals who had suffered traumatic experiences during childhood. However, among individuals who were more resilient (that is, those who possessed personal characteristics that help them cope with adversities, such as seeing things in a positive light, trusting others, and having faith in the future), this association was less pronounced. In other words, given equal levels of childhood traumatic experiences, levels of psychopathic traits were lower among people who were more resilient compared to those who were less resilient.

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Why is it important?

Traumatic experiences during childhood are dramatically frequent, often causing long-lasting impacts on survivors. Among the most detrimental outcomes is the development of personal characteristics that fuel the so-called cycle of violence, wherein former victims become perpetrators being at the same time traumatized and traumatizing others. This study is important because it shows that there are personal characteristics -- subsumed under the term resilience -- that can make people better at coping with childhood traumatic experience, crucially reducing the risk of developing tendencies that make them dangerous to others.

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