The Relationship Between Childhood Trauma and Aggression in Young Adulthood

Abstract

The basis of individual differences in terms of the tendency to violence has been the subject of many studies. In this case, the concepts of “domestic violence”, “social learning” and “intergenerational transmission” have emerged. According to Bandura's social learning theory, behavioral stereotypes are learned through social observation and role modeling. Intergenerational transmission theory also plays a supportive role. According to this theory, the child who observes violent behavior is used as a method of coping and problem-solving in the family; normalizes, learns, and therefore adopts it as a coping method. As a result, he/she can exhibit violent behavior during childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Based on all this information; the hypothesis claims that there is a significant correlation between being exposed to childhood trauma and aggression in young adulthood. In this study, the data about childhood trauma and aggression levels were collected from 443 young adults between the ages of 18-25 who are studying psychology, law, health sciences, foreign languages, and engineering at a foundation university in Istanbul by Childhood Trauma Questionnaire and Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire (BPAQ). As a result of the analysis, a positive correlation was found between the scale scores. Male participants got significantly higher scores on BPAQ than females.