Aggression in individuals who perpetrated crimes: the impact of adverse and positive childhood experiences

The data sets generated and/or analyzed during the present study are not publicly available due to the confidentiality of the data but are available from Olga Cunha on reasonable request. The data presented in this study are available on request from Olga Cunha due to privacy issues. All procedures performed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional ethics committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments. The present study is part of a research project approved by the ethics committee of Lusófona University (CEDIC-2020-15-8 on December 15, 2020). Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study. The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.
This study examined the association between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), positive childhood experiences (PCEs), and aggression, focusing on whether PCEs moderate the ACEs–aggression relationship. Method: The sample consisted of 317 males who perpetrated crimes in Portugal, aged between 19 and 84 years, sentenced to prison. Participants completed the ACEs Questionnaire, the Benevolent Childhood Experiences Scale, and the Buss–Perry Aggression Questionnaire–Short Form. Results: ACEs showed significant positive correlations with all aggression subscales, whereas PCEs were negatively correlated with both ACEs and all aggression subscales. Moderation analyses revealed that PCEs moderate the relationship between total ACEs and physical aggression. Additionally, PCEs served as a moderator between specific types of ACEs and distinct dimensions of aggression. Specifically, PCEs moderated the relationship between emotional neglect and total aggression, as well as between sexual abuse, emotional neglect, physical neglect, and family mental disorder and physical aggression. Conclusions: These findings highlight the protective role of PCEs; however, their buffering effect appears to be specific to certain types of ACEs and primarily limited to particular dimensions of aggression. This suggests that while promoting PCEs can be a valuable strategy in mitigating the negative behavioral outcomes of ACEs, targeted interventions may be necessary to address more severe or varied forms of aggression stemming from specific adverse experiences.
Marta Sousa, Tânia Marinho, and Ana Rita Cruz were funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), under HEI-Lab: Digital Human-Environment Interactions Labs (Grant UIDB/05380/2020, https:// doi.org/10.54499/UIDB/05380/2020). Telma Catarina Almeida was supported by the FCT by Project Reference UID/4585/2025 (https:// doi.org/10.54499/UID/04585/2025). Andreia de Castro Rodrigues was funded by national funds from the FCT in the context of the Project UID/04810/2025. This study was conducted at the Psychology Research Centre (CIPsi), School of Psychology, University of Minho, supported by the FCT (Grant UID/01662/2023: Centro de Investigação em Psicologia) through national funds. Because this research was funded in whole, or in part, by the Foundation for Science and Technology of Portugal (Grant UIDB/01662/2020), for the purpose of open access, the author has applied a CC BY public copyright license to any author accepted manuscript version arising from this submission.