Shattered Safety? Developmental Trajectories for Conspiracy Mentality and Violent Extremist Attitudes

This study’s aim was to 1) identify developmental trajectories of a ‘shattered’ sense of safety throughout adolescence, reflected by experiences of bullying victimization, emotional distress, and distrust overtime; 2) assess the impact of these trajectories on adults’ conspiracy mentality and violent extremist attitudes. Growth Mixture Models, utilizing data from five timepoints of the z-proso dataset (ages 13 to 24 years-old; N = 1482), revealed three developmental trajectory groups. Most participants exhibited low (89%) or subsiding (8%) levels of bullying victimization, emotional distress, and distrust. A small group of participants (3%) experienced increasing unsafety throughout adolescence, related to higher conspiracy mentality and violent extremist attitudes in young adulthood. This underscores the importance of prevention strategies for addressing emerging cognitive vulnerabilities.