BECE. Newsletter 

Vol.13, No.1, 2023 1689 

 

 

 

 

The Impact of Psychological Abuse and Neglect on 

Adolescents’ Externalizing Problem Behaviors: The 

Mediating Effect of Antisocial Attitudes and 

Moderating Effect of Gender 

By Wang, G. F., Chen, Y., Liu, Y., Liu, X. Q., Yu, Y., & Luo, W. 
Correspondence to: Guofang Wang, China University of Political Science and 

Law, China. E-mail: wangguofang@cupl.edu.cn  

XTERNALIZING problem behaviors mainly refers to behaviors that 

violate social ethics and harm others, including antisocial, illegal, ag-

gressive, and bullying behaviors. Adolescence is a period of high incidence 

of individual externalizing problem behaviors, which have a negative impact 

on the physical and mental health, interpersonal communication, and aca-

demic performance of adolescents. 

This study used the Psychological Abuse and Neglect Scale, Adoles-

cent Antisocial Attitudes Questionnaire, and Health Risk Behaviors Ques-

tionnaire (Externalizing Behavior Dimension) to investigate 1218 adoles-

cents aged 9 to 20 in a city of Sichuan Province. Among them, 54.19% were 

from urban areas, 44.66% from rural areas, and 1.15% did not report where 

they were from. The article attempted to explore the mechanism of the influ-

ence of psychological abuse and neglect on adolescents’ externalizing prob-

lem behaviors by analyzing descriptive statistics and mediation effects. 

The research findings showed that there were positive relations be-

tween psychological abuse and neglect, antisocial attitudes, and externalizing 

problem behaviors. Psychological abuse and neglect could directly affect the 

externalizing problem behaviors and could also indirectly influence them 

through the mediation of antisocial attitudes. The influence of psychological 

abuse and neglect on antisocial attitudes was moderated by gender. Psycho-

logical abuse and neglect have a stronger predictive effect on antisocial atti-

tudes of boy students, that is, boy students were more likely to identify with 

behaviors that violate morality and norms under the influence of psychologi-

cal abuse and neglect, and as a result, they are more likely to develop antiso-

cial attitudes. 

 

Source: Educational Research and Experiment, 2022; 2022(3):107-112.

 
 

 

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mailto:wangguofang@cupl.edu.cn