Influence of trait anxiety, child maltreatment, and adulthood life events on depressive symptoms

Abstract

BackgroundVarious personality traits mediate the association between childhood stress and depressive symptoms in adulthood. The aim of this study was to clarify the indirect effects of the experience of child maltreatment on depressive symptoms and appraisal of life events in adulthood through trait anxiety.Subjects and methodsA total of 404 participants who were volunteer subjects from the community were studied using the following self-administered questionnaire surveys: Patient Health Questionnaire-9, which measures depressive symptoms; State-Trait Anxiety Inventory Form Y, which measures trait anxiety; the Child Abuse and Trauma Scale, which measures child maltreatment; and Life Experiences Survey, which measures negative and positive appraisal of adulthood life events.ResultsStructural equation modeling demonstrated that the experience of child maltreatment increased depressive symptoms in adulthood as well as the negative appraisal of life events in adulthood through an increase in trait anxiety. Furthermore, trait anxiety affected depressive symptoms in adulthood through its influence on the negative appraisal of adulthood life events. The following indirect effect was also significant: the experience of child maltreatment increased the negative appraisal of adulthood life events via trait anxiety and subsequently influenced adult depressive symptoms.LimitationsThe subjects of this study are volunteer subjects from the community including healthy people, and hence the results may not be generalizable to major depressive patients. Recall bias should be considered when interpreting the results. Because this study is a cross-sectional study, the causality between the experience of child maltreatment and depression is not clear.ConclusionThis study suggests that trait anxiety may play a mediating role in the influence of the experience of child maltreatment on depressive symptoms in adulthood and negative appraisal of adulthood life events.

Combined Effects of Parenting in Childhood and Resilience on Work Stress in Nonclinical Adult Workers From the Community

“…As expected from the results of previous studies showing that early experiences in childhood affect personality traits (6,8,9,20,(46)(47)(48)(49)(50)(51), parental care in childhood increased resilience and parental overprotection decreased it in this study. Consistent with our results, Lind et al reported the same findings, and also demonstrated that the interaction of childhood sexual abuse with high parental authoritarianism affected resilience (17).…”

Structural equation modeling approach to explore the influence of childhood maltreatment in adults

“…This study demonstrates that childhood maltreatment affects depressive symptoms directly. This finding is consistent with the results of previous research [17]. According to the previous study, trait anxiety mediates the effects of childhood maltreatment on depression in the general adult population [17].…”

“…This finding is consistent with the results of previous research [17]. According to the previous study, trait anxiety mediates the effects of childhood maltreatment on depression in the general adult population [17]. We recently investigated the relationships between affective temperaments, subjective cognitive function, and social function, and showed that subjective cognitive function mediates the influence of affective temperaments on social function [48].…”

“…Interpersonal sensitivity mediates the effect of childhood maltreatment on depression in adulthood [16]. In addition, trait anxiety mediates the effect of child maltreatment on depression in adulthood [17]. In this study, the moderator effects of childhood maltreatment on cognitive function or functional disability have not been shown (Table 4).…”

“…The influence of childhood maltreatment on depression is mediated by several factors. Interpersonal sensitivity and trait anxiety mediate the influence of childhood maltreatment on depression in adulthood [16,17]. Various factors influence the relationship between childhood maltreatment and adulthood depressive symptoms.…”