Childhood Trauma And Depression:a Moderated Mediation Model

Objective: Previous studies have shown that childhood trauma can affect the occurrence and development of depression through the mediating mechanism of cognitive emotion regulation strategies(CERS).However,they were cross-sectional studies,and the influence of neuroticism,which as a depression-susceptible personality traits in this process,requires further study.On the basis of previous theories and studies,this study proposes the hypothesis of moderated mediation model,and tests the model in college students and depressive patients,respectively.Then this study examines the cross-time stability of this model through a longitudinal study in college students.And cross-sample comparisons were performed in college students and depressed patients to determine the cross-population stability of the model.Methods: A total of 2109 college students from a university in Hunan were tested by questionnaire survey(T0),followed by a follow-up study every 6 months(T1,T2).At T0,the subjects were required to complete the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire(CTQ),the Beck Depression Inventory-Ⅱ(BDI-Ⅱ),the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire(CERQ),and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Neuroticism Subscale(EPQ-N).The subjects at T1 and T2 only need to complete the BDI-Ⅱ.In addition,a total of 244 major depression patients were recruited from the outpatient departments of clinical psychology in two comprehensive tertiary hospitals in Changsha.They were required to complete all questionnaires.Data analysis was performed by using Model 4 and Model 59 of the SPSS PROCESS 3.5 macro.Results:(1)In the cross-sectional college students,a total of 30.25%of college students have experienced childhood trauma,and 11.57% of them were suffering from depressive symptoms;Adaptive CERS and maladaptive CERS played a partial mediating role in the relationship between childhood trauma and T0 depression,and the mediating effects were respectively accounted for 6.51% and 29.79% of the total effect;Neuroticism significantly moderated the direct pathway of childhood trauma affecting T0 depression(childhood trauma→T0 depression)and the second half of the two indirect pathways(adaptive CERS→T0 depression,nonadaptive CERS→ T0 depression).(2)In the longitudinal college students,a total of 5.03% and 8.82% of the college students in T1 and T2 reported that they have depressive symptoms;Maladaptive CERS played a partial mediating role in the relationship between childhood trauma and T1 depression and T2 depression,and the mediating effect accounted for 19.49% and 22.97% of the total effect;The mediating effect of adaptive CERS in the relationship between childhood trauma and T1 depression was not significant;However,adaptive CERS partially mediated the relationship between childhood trauma and T2 depression,and the mediating effect accounted for 5.41%of the total effect;Neuroticism significantly moderated two indirect pathways of childhood trauma affecting T1 depression and T2 depression(Adaptive CERS→T1 depression,T2 depression,non-adaptive CERS→T1 depression,T2 depression).(3)In cross-sectional depression patients,52.05% of individuals reported experiencing two or more types of childhood trauma;The maladaptive CERS partially mediated the relationship between childhood trauma and depression,and the mediating effect accounted for 52.41% of the total effect.The mediating effect of adaptive CERS in the relationship between childhood trauma and depression was not significant;No significant moderating effect of neuroticism was found in the direct and indirect pathways of childhood trauma affecting depression,so the moderated mediation model was not applicable in the depression group.Conclusion:(1)Childhood trauma positively predicts depression.As a potential psychological mechanism,maladaptive CERS played a mediating role between childhood trauma and depression,and neuroticism moderated the relationship between maladaptive CERS and depression.Childhood trauma,maladaptive CERS,depression,and neuroticism constituted the moderated mediation model;(2)This moderated mediation model is stable across time in college students;(3)Among the major depression patients,maladaptive CERS,as a potential psychological mechanism,mediated the relationship between childhood trauma and depression,and neuroticism did not significantly mediate this mediating process.This moderated mediation model does not have cross-group stability from college students to depressed patients.That is to say,this moderated mediation model is currently only applicable to college students.