The Impact Of Childhood Psychological Maltreatment On Relational Aggression Among Middle School Students:A Moderated Chain Mediation Model

A good peer relationship has become increasingly important to middle school students.In this period,in view of the growth of age and the development of social skills,relational aggression with the purpose of destroying others’interpersonal relationship gradually replaced the traditional physical aggression,which would cause serious adverse effects on psychological and behavioral development of both aggressor and victim.However,parents,schools and the society have not paid enough attention to it because of its concealment,group internality,difficulty to identify and other characteristics.Therefore,in order to provide evidence support for prevention and intervention measures,this study comprehensively explored the influencing factors of relational aggression from family(psychological maltreatment,individual（rejection sensitivity）and peer（relational victimization）system,and verified the moderating effect of cognitive reappraisal strategy.A total of 1868 middle school students were selected as subjects in this study,which were evenly distributed among 7^thgrade,8^thgrade,10^thgrade and 11^thgrade.Students’childhood psychological maltreatment,rejection sensitivity,relational victimization,relational aggression and cognitive reappraisal were measured by questionnaires and scales respectively.Data were analyzed by using SPSS26.0 and MPLUS 7.4.The results are as follows:（1）The mediating effect of rejection sensitivity is significant.Psychological maltreatment can not only directly predict relational aggression,but also significantly predict relational aggression through rejection sensitivity.The mediating effect accounts for 32.6%of the total effect.（2）The mediating effect of relational victimization is significant.Psychological maltreatment can affect students’relational aggression through relational victimization.The mediating effect accounts for 28.9%of the total effect.（3）The chain mediating effect of rejection sensitivity and relational victimization is significant.Psychological maltreatment can influence students’relational aggression through rejection sensitivity and relational victimization successively.The chain mediating effect accounts for 4.0%of the total effect.（4）The moderating effect of cognitive reappraisal is significant.Cognitive reappraisal plays a moderating role in the model that psychological maltreatment affects students’relational aggression through rejection sensitivity and in the model that psychological maltreatment affects students’relational aggression through rejection sensitivity and relational victimization successively.To be specific,cognitive reappraisal weakens the negative influence of psychological maltreatment on rejection sensitivity,and then indirectly moderates the impact of psychological maltreatment on relational aggression.The conclusions of this study are as follows:Psychological maltreatment can directly influence middle school students’relational aggression;Psychological maltreatment can indirectly influence relational aggression through rejection sensitivity and relational victimization respectively;Psychological maltreatment can influence students’rejection sensitivity and relational victimization successively for the purpose of further influencing students’relational aggression;Cognitive reappraisal strategy can indirectly decrease the negative effects of psychological maltreatment on relational aggression by weakening the impact of psychological maltreatment on students’rejection sensitivity.In conclusion,rejection sensitivity and relational victimization are important internal mechanisms in the relationship between psychological maltreatment and relational aggression,and cognitive reappraisal strategy plays a protective role in it.