The relationship of childhood traumas and parenting styles with dark triad personality traits and aggression

In this thesis, the relationships of childhood traumas and parental attitudes with dark triad personality traits and aggression were examined. At the same time, analyses were conducted to compare the dimensions of the dark triad and aggression according to the risk groups of childhood traumas. The sample of this study consisted of 379 young people and adults, 317 females (83.6%) and 62 males (16.4%) over the age of 18, living in Turkiye. Within the scope of the study, Demographic Information Form was used to reach the demographic information of the participants, Childhood Traumas Questionnaire (CTQ) was used to measure childhood traumas, Childrearing Styles Scale (CRSQ) was used to measure child-rearing styles, Abbreviated Dark Triad Scale (SD3) was used to measure dark personality traits, and Buss-Perry Aggression Scale (BPSAS) was used to measure aggression levels. All analyses were performed using the SPSS 27.0 program. According to the results, significant positive correlations were found between childhood traumas and dark triad personality traits. This result indicates that the dark triad traits of individuals increase with the increase in childhood traumatic experiences. When the relationships between childhood traumas and aggression were examined, it was found that individuals who were raised with excessive control and intervention during childhood may have higher levels of anger in later ages. The relationship between dark triad personality traits and aggression was also analyzed in the study. The results show that as the dark triad personality traits increase, anger levels also increase and especially the psychopathy sub-dimension is more closely related to anger. When the relationships between parental attitudes and dark triad personality traits and aggression were analyzed, significant and negative relationships were found between parental acceptance/affection dimension and aggression sub-dimensions, and positive relationships were found between parental supervision/control dimension and aggression. When the relationships with the dark triad personality traits were examined, it was concluded that paternal acceptance/affection dimension was positively related to Machiavellianism and negatively related to psychopathy, maternal supervision/control attitude was significantly positively related to narcissism and psychopathy, and paternal supervision/control attitude was significantly positively related to narcissism. When we look at the results of the comparison of the dark triad and anger dimensions according to the risk groups of childhood traumas, it is seen that individuals at risk of physical abuse have significantly higher scores especially in psychopathy and total dark triad scores and aggression sub-dimensions. Although individuals in the sexual abuse risk group had higher mean scores in dark triad personality traits and aggression levels than non-risk individuals, these differences did not reach statistical significance. In the emotional abuse risk dimension, it was found that exposure to emotional abuse may increase individuals' aggression tendencies and dark personality traits. In the physical neglect dimension, it is seen that physical neglect has a strong relationship with psychopathy tendencies and aggression. It can be said that the aggression tendencies of individuals with sensory neglect experience are significantly increased, especially in the dimensions of physical aggression, anger and hostility. The fact that no significant difference was observed in terms of Dark Triad personality traits suggests that the effect of emotional neglect on aggression emerged mostly in emotional and behavioral dimensions. As a result of the analyses, three of the research hypotheses were fully and two were partially confirmed. The fact that the current study examines four variables together and at the same time deals with the variables at the level of sub-dimensions shows that it can be a good source for future research.