Associations between childhood maltreatment and adult depression: a mediation analysis

Abstract

BackgroundThere is ample evidence showing that childhood maltreatment (CM) is a risk factor for the development of depression in adulthood. However, little is known about the psychological processes mediating this relationship. This study used a large community sample to investigate the mediating role of emotional, cognitive and/or interpersonal dysfunctions on the one hand and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms on the other hand.MethodsOne thousand twenty seven participants of a community sample filled out an online survey. Mediation analyses were computed via linear structural equation modelling.ResultsResults showed a significant mediation of the association between CM and adult depression via emotional impairments, depressogenic attribution style and symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder. Our study design was cross-sectional and therefore did not allow testing temporal precedence of mediators and causality. Data was collected retrospectively, a confounding effect of current depressive symptoms on retrospective recall of CM therefore cannot be ruled out.ConclusionsThe a priori mediation model showed a good fit with the data. The model suggests promising objectives for further research on CM-related depression and potential treatment targets in the future.

How is childhood maltreatment linked to benign envy/malicious envy? The mediating role of self‐esteem, authentic pride and hubristic pride

“…Specially, the present study is the first to demonstrate that childhood maltreatment is positively correlated with hubristic pride and negatively correlated with authentic pride. This confirms the view of learned helpless theory that adverse experiences would impact individuals' causal attribution and influence the emotional responses to events 24,25 . Second, to some extent, these findings extend research on pride and envy in the context of Chinese culture.…”

“…This confirms the view of learned helpless theory that adverse experiences would impact individuals' causal attribution and influence the emotional responses to events. 24,25 Second, to some extent, these findings extend research on pride and envy in the context of Chinese culture. Previous studies have mostly explored the effect of pride on envy from the perspective of interpersonal interaction.…”

“…Specially, she or he tends to attribute poor performance to internal, stable, and uncontrollable factors and considers herself or himself unable to obtain superiority even through effort. 23,24 The learned helplessness theory and its various revisions suggest that causal attributions influence emotional responses to events. 25 As mentioned earlier, causal attribution is the key factor in distinguishing the two types of pride.…”

“…Within the framework of the learned helplessness theory, considerable studies suggested that individual who experienced maltreatment tends to form negative casual attributions and develop helplessness. Specially, she or he tends to attribute poor performance to internal, stable, and uncontrollable factors and considers herself or himself unable to obtain superiority even through effort 23,24 . The learned helplessness theory and its various revisions suggest that causal attributions influence emotional responses to events 25 .…”

Life satisfaction mediates the association between childhood maltreatment and depressive symptoms: a study in a sample of Brazilian adolescents

“…Many studies have demonstrated that experiencing abuse and neglect during childhood increases the likelihood of developing mental disorders in adult life. [16][17][18][19][20][21] Yet, few studies have investigated possible psychological mediators between child maltreatment and mental disorders, 22,23 especially those that could mitigate the negative effects of early experiences of abuse and neglect. 24 Metel et al 22 found that resilience and cognitive biases partially mediate the relationship between early exposure to traumatic life events and depressive symptoms, and recent studies have demonstrated that social support mediates the effect of childhood maltreatment on mental health, [24][25][26][27] but, as far as we know, no studies have investigated LS as a mediator in the relation between childhood maltreatment and mental disorders.…”