Does Childhood Maltreatment Predict Moral Disgust? The Underlying Mediating Mechanisms

Qingji Zhang, Yue Zhou, Ziyuan Chen and Yanhui Xiang ()
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Qingji Zhang: School of Marxism, Dongguan University of Technology, Dongguan 523808, China
Yue Zhou: Department of Psychology, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, China
Ziyuan Chen: Institute of Developmental Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100091, China
Yanhui Xiang: Department of Psychology, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 16, 1-10

Abstract: Although moral disgust is one of the most important moral emotions, there is limited evidence about the antecedents of it in China. This paper aimed to discuss the linkage between childhood maltreatment and moral disgust, and investigated the specific mechanism between these two variables from the perspective of emotional development and moral development, respectively, based on the Tripartite Model. By combining random sampling and cluster sampling, this study recruited 968 participants from college. Then, childhood maltreatment, moral disgust, emotional intelligence, and empathy were measured separately by using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), Moral Disgust Scale (MD), Wong Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS), and Interpersonal Reactivity Index–C (IRI). Additionally, the results of the mediation model analysis show that childhood maltreatment is negatively predictable of moral disgust. In addition, the mechanism by which childhood maltreatment influences moral disgust could be explained by the effect of emotional intelligence on empathy. To sum up, this study explored and explained the specific mechanism between childhood maltreatment and moral disgust, replenishing previous achievements and providing support for the design of intervention on moral disgust by improving emotional intelligence and empathy.

Keywords: childhood maltreatment; moral disgust; emotional intelligence; empathy; structural equation model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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