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Adverse and positive childhood experiences and their associations with dark personality traits

George Van Doorn et al.

Journal of Research in Personality2025https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2025.104583article
ABDC B
Weight
0.46

What the paper says

• Adverse childhood experiences were positively associated with psychopathy, sadism, and narcissism. • Positive childhood experiences were positively associated with narcissism, and negatively associated with psychopathy, sadism, and Machiavellianism. • After controlling for age and gender, positive childhood experiences moderated the relationships between (a) adverse childhood experiences and psychopathy, and (b) adverse childhood experiences and sadism. Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are linked to psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism, while positive parenting practices correlate with narcissism. We investigated whether ACEs and Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs) predict Dark Tetrad traits, and whether PCEs moderate these relationships. A total of 931 participants (283 men, 632 women, 16 non-binary; M age = 35.72 years, SD = 12.52) completed an online survey. Participants completed the NPI, SRP-III, Mach-IV, SIS, CES-17, and the BCES. ACEs predicted psychopathy, narcissism, and sadism, while PCEs were positively associated with narcissism. PCEs moderated the relationships between ACEs and (a) psychopathy, and (b) sadism. The findings highlight the protective role PCEs play in the development of certain Dark Tetrad traits.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2025.104583

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@article{george2025,
  title        = {{Adverse and positive childhood experiences and their associations with dark personality traits}},
  author       = {George Van Doorn et al.},
  journal      = {Journal of Research in Personality},
  year         = {2025},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2025.104583},
}

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Adverse and positive childhood experiences and their associations with dark personality traits

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Evidence weight

0.46

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.37 × 0.4 = 0.15
M · momentum0.60 × 0.15 = 0.09
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.