Pathways from Childhood Emotional Neglect to Traditional Victimization among Secondary Vocational School Students: The Roles of Family Functioning, Psychopathy, and Socioeconomic Status

Considering the high prevalence and detrimental developmental outcomes of traditional victimization, it is imperative to explore the influencing factors and mechanisms of traditional victimization to formulate targeted prevention interventions. Previous studies have shown a significant and positive association between childhood emotional neglect and traditional victimization. To our knowledge, there is a limited understanding of the mechanism of this association. To fill this gap, this study examined the relationship between childhood emotional neglect and traditional victimization, as well as the roles of family functioning, psychopathy, and socioeconomic status (SES) among secondary vocational school students. A cross-sectional study was carried out among 605 secondary vocational school students from grades 10 to 11 (Mage = 16.19, SD = 0.79). Participants provided data on demographic variables, childhood emotional neglect, traditional victimization, family functioning, psychopathy, and SES by answering anonymous questionnaires. The findings showed that childhood emotional neglect was not directly related to traditional victimization, but it was indirectly related to traditional victimization through the mediation of family functioning, the mediation of psychopathy, as well as the chain mediation of family functioning and psychopathy among secondary vocational school students. Additionally, SES could not moderate the relationships between childhood emotional neglect and family functioning, psychopathy, as well as traditional victimization among secondary vocational school students. These findings suggest that interventions for decreasing traditional victimization among secondary vocational school students should not only focus on reducing childhood emotional neglect but also target family functioning and psychopathy. Besides, these findings also imply SES cannot remediate the negative effects of childhood emotional neglect on secondary vocational school students.