ArticleBMC psychology2025
Childhood trauma and malevolent creativity: the mediating role of positive psychological capital and gender differences.
Article in BMC psychology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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2 citing papers in PubMed.
- The association between social media content production and adolescent physical health promotion: the chain mediating roles of online social support and positive psychological capital.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- Sex as a moderator of the relationship between childhood trauma and depression in adulthood: an analysis in a clinical sample of adult patients.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
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6 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundMalevolent creativity refers to the creative processes used by an individual to deliberately harm others. Childhood trauma is typically associated with increased malevolent creativity and reduced positive psychological capital. Prior studies have also revealed significant gender differences in malevolent creativity. However, the mediating and moderating effects behind this relationship are still unclear. This study aimed to investigate the mediating effect of psychological capital and the moderating role of gender in the association between childhood trauma and malevolent creativity.
methodA sample of 1501 college students (mean age = 20.26 years, SD = 1.28; 48.6% women) from China was investigated via questionnaires. All the subjects completed the Short Form of Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ-SF), the Positive Psychological Capital Questionnaire (PPQ), and the Malevolent Creativity Behavior Scale (MCBS). PROCESS 3.1 was used to test the moderated mediating model.
resultsThe results revealed significant gender differences in terms of psychological capital and malevolent creativity, with male students scoring significantly higher than female students. The moderated mediating model analysis revealed that childhood trauma had a positive direct effect on malevolent creativity and that psychological capital mediated this association. Moreover, this mediating model was moderated by gender such that childhood trauma had a stronger influence on malevolent creativity through psychological capital in males than in females.
conclusionThe present study highlights the gender difference in the mediating role of psychological capital in the association between childhood trauma and malevolent creativity from a positive psychology perspective. The strengths and limitations of the current study are discussed.
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