The Mediating Role of Forgiveness and Self-Efficacy in the Relationship Between Childhood Maltreatment and Treatment Motivation Among Malaysian Male Drug Addicts

Abstract

Studies have reported high rates of childhood maltreatment among individuals with drug addiction problems; however, investigation about the potentially protective factors to mitigate the effects of maltreatment experiences on motivation to engage in addiction treatment has received less attention. This study aims at exploring the mediating effects of forgiveness and self-efficacy on the association between childhood maltreatment and treatment motivation among drug addicts. A total of 360 male drug addicts (mean age = 33.34, SD = 7.25) were recruited from three mandatory inpatient rehabilitation centers in Malaysia. Participants completed a package of self-report questionnaires including measures of childhood maltreatment experiences, forgiveness, self-efficacy, and motivation for treatment. The analysis conducted using the structural equation model (SEM) revealed that childhood maltreatment significantly predicted lower treatment motivation, while forgiveness and self-efficacy played a fully mediating role regarding the effect of childhood maltreatment on treatment motivation. In conclusion, these findings suggest that combining the element of forgiveness and self-efficacy in treatment programs appears to benefit the drug addicts with childhood maltreatment history.

An Exploration of Childhood Trauma and Psychological Well-Being of Teenagers

“…Child Act 2001 stated that children are those who are under the age of 18 years old. Horrible events which cause childhood trauma includes physical abuse, physical neglect, emotional abuse, emotional neglect, and sexual abuse (WHO, 2015;Hu et al, 2022;Janiri et al, 2021;Mey et al, 2022;Perveen & Hua, 2022). Childhood trauma also divided into different categories such as early life stress or Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Theory is a hierarchy needs of individual that had been arranged.…”