Scientists have found a link between childhood trauma and violations of moral behavior

A teenager can understand the difference between right and wrong, empathize with other people and feel guilty, but at the same time break the rules over and over again. A study by psychologist Julia Timersma from the University of Amsterdam shows that it may not be a matter of lack of conscience, but that its individual components stop working as a single system. About what conscience consists of, how it is formed and why childhood trauma can disrupt its development — in the material of Izvestia.

Conscience is not just the ability to distinguish good from bad.

Psychologist Timersma suggests considering conscience not as the only personality trait that can be measured by the principle of "is or is not", but as a complex system of several interconnected abilities. The results of the work are published in the journal Medical Xpress.

The study identifies three main components: empathy, emotions of self-awareness, and moral reasoning. Empathy helps to notice and understand the condition of another person. Thanks to her, someone else's pain or resentment can be perceived not as an abstract fact, but as an experience of a particular person. Moral thinking is related to the ability to evaluate actions in terms of norms, rules, and consequences. And the emotions of self—awareness — primarily guilt and shame - connect the assessment of an act with a person's self-image.

Psychologists have long considered conscience as an evolving system. For example, a study by Grazyna Kochanskaya, published in the Journal of Personality, shows that both moral emotions — in particular, feelings of guilt and discomfort after breaking rules — and the ability to control one's own behavior participate in its formation. Moreover, these components begin to form in early childhood.

At the same time, empathy and guilt have different functions. A person can understand that another person is in pain, but this knowledge alone is not enough to change their own behavior. The feeling of guilt is already connected with the assessment of one's own actions and may prompt one to correct the harm done. Shame works a little differently: it more often affects a person's self—image-not only "I did something bad," but also "something is wrong with me." A study of moral emotions in the journal Annual Review of Psychology shows that the distinction between guilt, shame, empathy, and other emotional responses is important for understanding moral behavior.

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How conscience is formed

Conscience does not appear ready-made. Its development begins in childhood and is simultaneously related to the characteristics of the child himself and his relationships with others. Research shows that the formation of moral emotions and behavior is influenced by temperament, the ability to self-regulate, and family socialization.

The child's relationship with his parents plays an important role. In Kochanskaya's research, warm, responsive, and mutual interaction between a child and an adult was associated with a more favorable development of conscience. According to her work, published in the journal Current Directions in Psychological Science, the child gradually does not just obey an external rule, but begins to accept norms of behavior and follow them without constant adult supervision.

The ability to regulate your own emotions is also important. If a child is able to stop, notice the consequences of his behavior, feel discomfort after violating a rule, and restore a relationship with another person, individual elements of conscience gradually combine into a stable system of self-regulation. Therefore, moral behavior is not only knowledge of the rules, but also the ability to use this knowledge in a specific situation.

A systematic review of research on children and adolescents in the journal Children also found a link between secure attachment and the development of moral emotions, including feelings of guilt and shame. At the same time, the authors emphasize that research is not yet sufficient for simple causal conclusions: the development of conscience depends on many factors, and individual mechanisms remain insufficiently studied.

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What happens to conscience after injury

This is where Timersma's results provide an important addition to the already existing concepts. Her study involved 88 clinically referred adolescents and young adults aged 12 to 23 years. They filled out questionnaires about childhood trauma, after which specialists assessed various components of conscience using the Clinical Assessment of Conscience (CAC).

It turned out that more severe traumatic experiences were associated with less coherence between empathy, self-awareness emotions, and moral reasoning. In other words, the teenager's individual abilities could be preserved, but they worked less consistently. This is what the researcher describes as a fragmented conscience.

The connection with emotional neglect was particularly noticeable. Emotional and sexual violence followed in terms of severity of the association. However, the result cannot be understood as proof that a particular type of injury automatically leads to a violation of conscience. The study shows a statistical relationship between the traumatic experience and the degree of integration of its components.

The notion of conscience as a system rather than a single faculty is already found in the scientific literature. In one of the works devoted to adolescents with delinquent behavior, conscience was also considered through empathy, feelings of guilt and shame, and moral orientation. A meta-analysis in the journal Developmental Review showed that these components of conscience in childhood and adolescence are associated with a subsequent risk of delinquent behavior. At the same time, we are talking about statistical predictors, and not about an inevitable development scenario.

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Why can a teenager understand that he is doing the wrong thing?

A fragmented conscience is important precisely because it allows you to explain the apparent contradiction in behavior. A teenager may know that a certain act will cause harm to another person, and at the same time not use this understanding at the time of making a decision.

For example, moral reasoning can work relatively well: a person is able to explain why a certain action is considered wrong. But the emotional component may turn on less or not be associated with this knowledge. The teenager understands the rule, but it does not become an internal regulator of behavior for him.

The reverse situation is also possible. A person may experience strong emotions after an act, but poorly understand the moral side of the situation or not be able to stop before the action is committed. Therefore, evaluating only one attribute — for example, the ability to experience guilt — gives an incomplete picture.

It is the interaction of these elements that is considered fundamental. A study of conscience in the journal Child Development links it not only to moral emotions, but also to self—regulation - the ability to control impulses and correlate one's own behavior with learned norms. In this sense, conscience does not work as an internal list of prohibitions, but as a mechanism that helps a person connect their understanding of the norm, their emotional reaction, and their own actions.

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How can helping teenagers make a difference?

The authors of the new study suggest looking at problematic behavior not only through the question of "whether a teenager has a conscience." It is much more informative to understand which of its components are already functioning, and which are experiencing difficulties in interacting with each other.

That's what CAC was created for. The tool combines data from interviews, observations, information from other people and existing recordings and allows you to evaluate 12 parameters related to empathy, emotions of self-awareness and moral thinking. As a result, the specialist receives not a single assessment, but a more detailed picture of the functioning of conscience.

This approach potentially changes the very purpose of helping. If the problem is not a complete lack of empathy, guilt, or understanding of moral norms, but the fact that these abilities interact poorly, the work can be aimed not only at strengthening individual skills, but also at integrating them.

This is especially important for teenagers with traumatic experiences. Scientific evidence shows that the development of conscience begins long before adolescence and depends on the interaction of emotional regulation, self-control, and relationships with loved ones. Therefore, the task of a specialist may not be to identify a teenager as "unscrupulous", but to understand which links of this system have been disrupted and where the possibilities for their restoration remain.