The Multiple Mediating Effects Of Different Attributional Styles Between Childhood Psychological Maltreatment Experience And Social Exclusion In College Students

Social exclusion is a universal and negative interpersonal experience that has a harmful impact on individuals’ physical and mental health.It is a major topic in this field to explore how to lessen the negative effects of social exclusion.Previous studies on factors affecting social exclusion mainly discussed from environmental factors and individual factors respectively.However,since the family environment in childhood is the micro-system that individuals are most directly exposed to,if psychological maltreatment is often inflicted on children by their caregivers,it will make children easy to form negative attributional styles and produce negative interpersonal experience in adulthood.At the same time,attributional style is an important cognitive factor affecting individual social exclusion.Although existing studies had mainly discussed the relationship between childhood psychological maltreatment and internal-extrinsic attributions,as well as the relationship between internal-extrinsic attributions and social exclusion,they had not further explored the influence of childhood psychological maltreatment on social exclusion and the relationship between different attributional styles.Therefore,in order to explore the relationship between childhood psychological maltreatment and social exclusion of college students,as well as the mediating role of different attributional styles between them.Through large sample survey,longitudinal study and experimental study,this study carried out the following three studies,the specific contents were as follows:(1)In Study 1,a horizontal survey was conducted on college students,and the horizontal relationship among childhood psychological maltreatment,attributional style and social exclusion among college students was preliminarily explored by using the Childhood Psychological Maltreatment Scale,the Attributional Style Questionnaire and the Ostracism Experience Scale for Adolescents as measuring tools.At the same time,the multiple mediating effects of different attributional styles were also discussed.(2)The Study 2 used a longitudinal tracking method to track college freshmen,and the measurement tools were consistent with the first study.This study first examined what the trajectory of social exclusion of college freshmen is.At the same time,it further examined the relationship between childhood psychological maltreatment,attributional style and the trajectory of social exclusion of college freshmen during the transition period,and whether the vertical mediating role of different attributional styles was established.(3)The Study 3 consisted of two sub-studies.Study 3A examined the characteristics of attributional response of college students with childhood psychological maltreatment experience after experiencing social exclusion events.Study 3B further examined whether attributional induction can effectively reduce the level of social exclusion of college students with childhood psychological maltreatment after experiencing social exclusion events.Through the above three studies,the following conclusions were obtained:(1)Childhood psychological maltreatment could positively predict social exclusion of college students.Different attributional styles(selfattribution,persistent attribution and overall attribution)had multiple mediating effects between childhood psychological maltreatment and social exclusion.(2)The social exclusion of college freshmen during the transition period presented a linear upward trend.The overall attribution played a partial mediating role between the intercepts of the trajectories of childhood psychological maltreatment and social exclusion,while the persistent attribution played a complete mediating role between the slopes of childhood psychological maltreatment and social exclusion.However,there was no significant mediating effect of self-attribution on the trajectories of childhood psychological maltreatment and social exclusion.(3)After experiencing social exclusion events,college students with childhood psychological maltreatment experience were more inclined to self-attribution,persistent attribution and overall attribution in their attributional responses.(4)After experiencing social exclusion events,although the negative emotions of college students with childhood psychological maltreatment can not be reduced through others,temporary or local attributional induction,but they can increase the basic needs and positive emotions of the subjects,which to some extent shows that induction can indirectly reduce the level of individual social exclusion;among them,compared with local attributional induction,temporary attributional induction can increase the basic needs and positive emotions of college students with childhood psychological maltreatment experience,and its positive effect on reducing social exclusion is also greater.In summary,through the above three series of studies,this study systematically explored the dynamic relationship among early family environment,individual attribution and social exclusion of college students.The results of this study have certain reference value for helping individuals with childhood psychological maltreatment experience develop positive attributional styles,reduce the generation of social exclusion of contemporary college students,and help them establish good interpersonal relationships.