The research team, led by Marina Leonor Pinheiro and Olga Cunha of the University of Minho in Portugal, together with Marta Sousa and Rui Abrunhosa Gonçalves, focused on a group that has long been underrepresented in psychopathy research. Most of what scientists know about the developmental roots of psychopathic traits comes from studies of men, even though women constitute a growing share of the incarcerated population and display distinct patterns of offending, trauma exposure, and emotional functioning. Psychopathy itself is not a monolith. Contemporary models, including the widely used four-facet structure, distinguish between an interpersonal facet marked by manipulation and superficial charm, an affective facet defined by shallow emotion and lack of remorse, a lifestyle facet characterized by impulsivity and irresponsibility, and an antisocial facet reflecting a history of rule-breaking and criminal behavior.

Participants in the study, whose average age was just under 39 years, completed a battery of validated self-report instruments. The ACEs Scale captured the accumulated weight of childhood adversity, from physical and emotional abuse to living in a household marked by substance misuse or mental illness. The Benevolent Childhood Experiences Scale, developed specifically to measure the positive side of the developmental ledger, assessed the presence of supportive figures, safe surroundings, and comforting memories that can counterbalance harm. Adult attachment was measured with the Adult Attachment Scale–Revised, which yields three dimensions: anxiety about abandonment, comfort with closeness, and trust in others. Psychopathic traits were assessed with the Self-Report Psychopathy Scale–Short Form, allowing the researchers to examine both total scores and the individual facets separately.

The results confirmed the central association that decades of prior work had predicted. Adverse childhood experiences were positively associated with psychopathic traits overall, and the connection was particularly strong for the lifestyle and antisocial facets, the dimensions most closely tied to impulsive, unstable, and rule-violating behavior. In other words, women who reported more cumulative adversity in childhood were more likely to display the behavioral patterns of psychopathy that contribute directly to criminal careers and institutional misconduct. This facet-specific pattern matters theoretically, because it suggests that early trauma may shape the behavioral expression of psychopathy more powerfully than its emotional or interpersonal core.

Equally revealing was what the researchers found when they turned the lens toward positive childhood experiences. These benevolent early experiences were negatively associated with the lifestyle facet of psychopathy, meaning that women who recalled more supportive and nurturing childhood environments reported lower levels of impulsivity and irresponsibility in adulthood. The finding aligns with a rapidly expanding body of literature on what some researchers have called counter-ACEs, the idea that positive experiences can accumulate their own protective momentum and promote adaptive functioning even in the presence of significant adversity. Prior studies have linked positive childhood experiences to better adult mental health, stronger relationships, and reduced psychopathology across general and justice-involved populations.

But the study’s most ambitious test, and its most sobering result, concerned the interplay between these early experiences and adult attachment. Drawing on attachment theory, which holds that early caregiver relationships form internal working models that guide close relationships across the lifespan, the researchers hypothesized that the protective effect of positive childhood experiences might depend on a woman’s adult attachment profile. Secure attachment, characterized by low anxiety, comfort with closeness, and trust in others, could plausibly amplify the benefits of a benevolent childhood, while attachment insecurity could erode them. Using moderated moderation analyses, a statistical technique capable of detecting three-way interactions in which two moderators jointly condition the strength of an association, the team tested this possibility for each attachment dimension.

The verdict was negative. After applying false discovery rate correction, a stringent statistical safeguard against spurious findings when multiple tests are conducted, none of the hypothesized three-way interactions between adverse experiences, positive experiences, and any of the three attachment dimensions reached significance. Attachment anxiety, comfort with closeness, and trust in others did not condition the relationship between childhood adversity and psychopathic traits in this sample. The protective role that the researchers predicted for positive childhood experiences, in other words, was not amplified or diminished by adult attachment patterns among these incarcerated women. The authors interpret this as evidence that the hypothesized buffering mechanism may be more complex than attachment theory alone can explain, or that it may operate differently in forensic populations than in community samples.

The null findings carry real scientific weight. Interaction effects are notoriously difficult to detect and replicate, and recent methodological work has shown that developmental moderation hypotheses often fail to reproduce across cohorts and domains. By reporting their corrected non-significant results transparently, the Portuguese team contributes to a more honest map of where protective factors do and do not matter. The findings suggest instead a simpler picture: adverse and positive childhood experiences each show direct, facet-specific associations with psychopathic traits, and any protective effect of benevolent experiences appears not to hinge on how securely or insecurely these women attach to others as adults. For clinicians working in women’s prisons, the practical implication is that trauma history remains a critical risk marker, particularly for impulsive and antisocial behavior, while positive childhood experiences may merit attention as an independent, albeit modest, protective signal.

The study also highlights the broader case for trauma-informed care in correctional settings, an approach that recognizes the prevalence of childhood victimization among incarcerated women and integrates that understanding into assessment, treatment, and institutional policy. Because the design was cross-sectional and relied on retrospective self-reports, the researchers caution that causal direction cannot be established and that memory biases may influence reported adversity. The sample, drawn from Portuguese prisons, may not generalize to other cultural contexts. Still, as one of the few studies to examine ACEs, positive childhood experiences, attachment, and psychopathy simultaneously in women, the work opens a clear path forward: longitudinal designs and larger samples will be needed to determine whether benevolent early experiences truly inoculate against psychopathic outcomes, and under what relational conditions that protection takes hold.

Subject of Research: The relationship between adverse childhood experiences and psychopathic traits in incarcerated women, examining the moderating roles of positive childhood experiences and adult attachment.

Article Title: Adverse Childhood Experiences and Psychopathic Traits in Women: An Exploratory Study of the Moderating Role of Positive Childhood Experiences and Attachment

Article References: Pinheiro, M. L., Sousa, M., Gonçalves, R. A., & Cunha, O. (2026). Adverse Childhood Experiences and Psychopathic Traits in Women: An Exploratory Study of the Moderating Role of Positive Childhood Experiences and Attachment. Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40653-026-00971-7

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s40653-026-00971-7

Keywords: adverse childhood experiences, positive childhood experiences, psychopathic traits, attachment, incarcerated women, childhood trauma, moderated moderation, forensic psychology, Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma, resilience, Adverse, Childhood