Childhood trauma and life history strategies - the moderating role of childhood socio-economic status and the dark triad traits

We investigated the potential link between childhood trauma and life history strategies, considering subclinical psychopathy, Machiavellianism, subclinical narcissism, and childhood socioeconomic status as potential moderators. Two hundred seventy participants (M_age = 20.45, SD = 4.20) completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, the Short Dark Triad measure, the High-K Strategy Scale, and the childhood socioeconomic status brief questions. Participants who reported being subjected to high levels of trauma, emotional abuse, physical abuse, and/or emotional neglect during childhood also reported more characteristics resembling fast life history strategies and/or low childhood socioeconomic status. Subclinical narcissism was the only Dark Triad trait which shown a statistically significant relationship with life history strategies, being negatively correlated with fast life history strategies. However, out of the proposed moderators, only subclinical psychopathy moderated the relationship between self-reported childhood trauma and fast life history strategies by strengthening their relationship, albeit it was not associated with life history strategies. Self-reported childhood socioeconomic status was negatively associated with fast life history strategies, but its moderating effect was statistically insignificant. These findings underscore the importance of tailoring trauma-targeted assessments and interventions to individual differences in personality and shifting public health, social, and education policies from reactive towards preventative programs for at-risk youth.