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Engaging a cohort of 911 middle and high school students in China, the research uncovers that childhood psychological abuse is a significant predictor of aggression in adolescents. It further identifies alexithymia as a mediator in the correlation between childhood psychological abuse and adolescent aggression. Additionally, a sequential mediation by mentalizing and alexithymia elucidates the complex link connecting childhood psychological abuse to aggression. These insights shed light on the psychological underpinnings of aggressive behaviors in adolescents and lay a foundation for crafting targeted prevention and intervention strategies.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1038\/s41598-025-07449-w","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,2]],"date-time":"2025-07-02T00:50:22Z","timestamp":1751417422000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Childhood psychological abuse influences adolescent aggression through mentalizing and alexithymia sequential mediation"],"prefix":"10.1038","volume":"15","author":[{"given":"Shuilian","family":"Duan","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xizheng","family":"Xu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Huaying","family":"Pi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ji","family":"Lai","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yuesheng","family":"Huang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,2]]},"reference":[{"key":"7449_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"27","DOI":"10.1146\/annurev.psych.53.100901.135231","volume":"53","author":"CA Anderson","year":"2002","unstructured":"Anderson, C. 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