Coping Style and Resilience Mediate the Effect of Childhood Maltreatment on Mental Health Symptomology

Abstract

Background: A well-known distal risk factor for mental health symptomology is childhood maltreatment. Previous research revealed that several mediators, such as coping style and resilience, might be connected to the psychological mechanism of childhood maltreatment on mental health symptomology. Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess how coping style and resilience affect the relationship between childhood maltreatment and mental health symptomology of college students. Methods: With the method of cross-sectional survey, 740 college students from China (Gansu Province) completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), the Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire (SCSQ), the Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), and the Symptom Checklist 90 (SCL-90). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to reveal the link between childhood maltreatment, coping style, resilience, and mental health symptomology. Results: The results showe that childhood maltreatment was significantly positively correlated with mental health symptomology and significantly negatively correlated with coping style and resilience. Coping style was significantly negatively correlated with mental health symptomology and significantly positively correlated with resilience. Resilience was significantly negatively correlated with mental health symptomology. Coping style and resilience played a partially mediating role in the relationship between childhood maltreatment and college students’ mental health symptomology. Through a chain of intermediary effects on coping style and resilience, childhood maltreatment not only had a direct impact on mental health symptomology but also had an indirect impact. Conclusion: Childhood maltreatment could affect college students’ mental health symptomology through the chain mediating effect of coping style and resilience. Therefore, it is an effective way to reduce the influence of childhood maltreatment on mental health symptomology through some intervention measures to cultivate positive coping style and improve resilience.

Role of self-esteem and personal mastery on the association between social support and resilience among COVID-19 long haulers

“…As supported by Ungar's social ecological model of resilience [ 45 ] and previous studies [ 40 , [46] , [47] , [48] ], the association between social support and resilience could be mediated through intrapersonal psychological resources. Self-esteem is a primary intrapersonal psychological resource that could mediate the association of social support and resilience [ 40 , 49 , 50 ].…”

Psychological resilience and cognitive reappraisal mediate the effects of coping style on the mental health of children

“…Coping styles comprise positive and negative styles (Luo et al, 2016). Cao et al (2022) found a significant negative correlation between positive coping styles and mental health symptoms, suggesting that developing positive coping styles can effectively reduce mental health symptoms. When individuals are in risky situations, a positive coping style may weaken or cushion the negative impact on mental health, whereas a negative coping style may enhance or promote the negative impact on mental health (Stevenson and Marc, 2005;.…”