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World J Psychiatry. Nov 19, 2026; 16(11): 123977
Published online Nov 19, 2026. doi: 10.5498/wjp.123977
Published online Nov 19, 2026. doi: 10.5498/wjp.123977
Digital shadow of childhood trauma: Associations between childhood maltreatment, moral disengagement, and online aggressive behavior in college students
Jia-Xi Peng, Mental Health Education Center, Chengdu University, Chengdu 610106, Sichuan Province, China
Bing-Bing Wang, Yang Lv, Aviation University of Air Force, Changchun 130022, Jilin Province, China
Sheng-Jun Wu, Department of Military Medical Psychology, Fourth Military Medical Uni
Co-corresponding authors: Bing-Bing Wang and Sheng-Jun Wu.
Author contributions: Peng JX, Wang BB, Lv Y, and Wu SJ made substantial contributions to the conception and design of the study, the acquisition, analysis, and interpretation of data, and the drafting and critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content; Wang BB and Wu SJ contributed equally to this article as the co-corresponding authors; and all authors thoroughly reviewed and endorsed the final manuscript.
AI contribution statement: The authors take full responsibility and accountability for all content of this manuscript, including any portions for which AI tools were used as assistive technologies. All AI-assisted outputs were carefully reviewed, validated, and approved by the authors. AI tools were not used to generate original scientific data, perform independent scientific analyses, or draw scientific conclusions.
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 72374208.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of Chengdu University, approval No. 498465574.
Informed consent statement: Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement-checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement-checklist of items.
Data sharing statement: The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Corresponding author: Sheng-Jun Wu, PhD, Department of Military Medical Psychology, Fourth Military Medical University, No. 169 Changle West Road, Xi’an 710032, Shaanxi Province, China. wushj@fmmu.edu.cn
Received: June 3, 2026
Revised: July 16, 2026
Accepted: July 28, 2026
Published online: November 19, 2026
Processing time: 149 Days and 0.8 Hours
Revised: July 16, 2026
Accepted: July 28, 2026
Published online: November 19, 2026
Processing time: 149 Days and 0.8 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: This cross-sectional study examined whether moral disengagement simultaneously mediates and moderates the association between childhood maltreatment and online aggressive behavior in college students. The findings suggest that strengthening moral self-regulation could be a promising direction for reducing the behavioral correlates of early mal