Childhood maltreatment influences suicidal behavior: Rumination mediates and regulatory emotional self-efficacy moderates

The relationship between childhood maltreatment subtypes and adolescent internalizing problems: The mediating role of maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies

BACKGROUND

While childhood maltreatment is understood to be a significant risk factor for adolescent internalizing problems (depression and anxiety), underlying mechanisms linking each type of maltreatment to internalizing problems in adolescents remain unclear. Moreover, the current state of knowledge regarding the associations between maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies and each type of maltreatment, as well as their impact on adolescent internalizing problems, is limited. Additionally, it remains unclear whether these maladaptive strategies mediate this relationship.

OBJECTIVE

This study sought to investigate the effects of childhood maltreatment types on adolescent internalizing problems and to explore whether the overall and specific types of maladaptive strategies mediate these associations.

METHODS

Using a cross-sectional design, adolescents (N = 7071, Mage = 14.05 years, SDage = 1.54) completed online questionnaires assessing childhood maltreatment, maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies (including rumination, catastrophizing, self-blame, and other-blame), anxiety, and depression. The hypothesized mediating effects were tested using the Lavaan package in R software (4.1.2).

RESULTS

Different maltreatment types had varying effects on adolescent internalizing problems. Emotional neglect, emotional abuse, and sexual abuse significantly affected anxiety and depression, whereas physical neglect and physical abuse did not. Other than physical neglect and physical abuse, overall maladaptive strategies mediated the relationship between the other three types of maltreatment (emotional abuse, emotional neglect, and sexual abuse) and internalizing problems (anxiety and depression). For specific maladaptive strategies, rumination mediated the effects of physical abuse, emotional abuse, emotional neglect, and sexual abuse on internalizing problems (anxiety and depression). In contrast, catastrophizing mediated the relationship between physical neglect, emotional abuse, emotional neglect, sexual abuse and internalizing problems (anxiety and depression).

CONCLUSIONS

These results suggest that the effects of maltreatment types on internalizing problems are different and that maladaptive strategies, particularly rumination and catastrophizing, are important mechanisms through which childhood maltreatment affects internalizing problems. This is a reminder that mental health workers need to consider the different effects of maltreatment types when intervening and recognize the importance of prioritizing interventions for rumination and catastrophizing.

Reliability and validity of the short version of the childhood abuse self report scale in Chinese college students

BACKGROUND

The reliability and validity of the current scale for measuring childhood abuse in China are worrying. The development of the Short Version of the Childhood Abuse Self Report Scale (CASRS-12) helps to change this situation, but the effectiveness of the tool has not yet been tested in Chinese participants. This study aims to test the reliability and validity of the CASRS‑12 in Chinese college students.

METHODS

A total of 932 college students were investigated, of whom 418 were investigated for the first time, and only the CASRS‑12 was filled out. In the second survey, 514 participants filled out the CASRS‑12, Depression Scale, Self-esteem Scale and Subjective Well-being Scale in turn. After 4 weeks, 109 participants were selected for retest.

RESULTS

Each item of the CASRS‑12 had good discrimination. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis (χ2/df = 4. 18, RMSEA = 0. 079, CFI = 0. 95, TLI = 0. 94, IFI = 0. 95, NFI = 0. 94) all supported the four-factor structure of the scale, and the cumulative contribution rate of variance was 76.05%. Cronbach's α coefficient and retest reliability were 0.86 and 0.65, respectively. Childhood abuse was positively correlated with depression (r = 0. 42, p < 0.01), and negatively correlated with self-esteem (r=-0. 33, p < 0.01) and subjective well-being (r=-0. 32, p < 0.01).

CONCLUSION

The Chinese version of CASRS‑12 meets the measurement standard and could be used to measure the level of childhood abuse of Chinese college students.

Role of rumination and hope on negative life events and suicidal ideation under the background of normalization of pandemic prevention and control: A moderated mediation model

Introduction

The study aimed to investigate the impact and mechanism of negative life events on college students' suicidal ideation during the COVID-19 pandemic and the buffering effect of hope under the background of normalization of pandemic.

Methods

A total of 5211 participants took part in this study. Self-reported negative life events, rumination, hope and suicide ideation were measured using a range of questions and scales. Our research demonstrated that the incidence of suicidal ideation among college freshmen in the past week was higher during the COVID-19 pandemic than that before the pandemic. In this study, conditional process model 15 was used to verify the hypothetical model of rumination as a potential mediator and hope as a moderator.

Results

The hypothesized moderated mediation model was verified significant (β = -0.047, 95% CI = [-0.061, -0.035]), and hope was found to moderate the direct effect of negative life events on suicidal ideation (β = -0.039, t = -2.937, 95% CI = [-0.065, -0.013]) as well as the indirect effect of through the mediator rumination (β = -0.134, t = -10.850, 95% CI = [-0.158, -0.110]).

Discussion

We found that rumination partially mediated the effect of negative life events on suicidal ideation, and hope buffered the direct and indirect effect of negative life events on suicidal ideation. The implications of the findings for clinical interventions are discussed, including the importance of hope arousal as a protective factor and rumination as a cognitive mechanism for emotion regulation under the background of normalization of pandemic.