Sleep disorders mediate the link between childhood trauma and depression severity in children and adolescents with depression

Pathway from childhood trauma to nonsuicidal self-injury in adolescents with major depressive disorder: the chain-mediated role of psychological resilience and depressive severity

This study aimed to explore the pathway from childhood trauma to nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) in adolescents with major depressive disorder (MDD) and to examine the chain-mediating role of psychological resilience and depressive symptoms in this pathway. A total of 391 adolescents with MDD were recruited in the present study. The Chinese version of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form (CTQ-SF), the Chinese version of the Symptoms Check List-90 (SCL-90), the Chinese version of the Conner-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), and the Ottawa Self-Injury Inventory Chinese Revised Edition (OSIC) were used to evaluate childhood trauma, depressive symptoms, psychological resilience and NSSI, respectively. Our results showed that 60.87% of adolescents with MDD had NSSI in the past month. Childhood trauma frequency was negatively correlated with psychological resilience but positively correlated with depressive symptoms and NSSI severity in adolescents with MDD. The stepwise logistic regression analysis identified that age, childhood trauma and depressive symptoms could independently predict the occurrence of NSSI, and the three-step hierarchical regression showed that childhood trauma, psychological resilience and depressive symptoms were all significantly associated with NSSI frequency in adolescents with MDD. Furthermore, the chain-mediation analysis revealed that psychological resilience and depression serially mediated the relationship between childhood trauma and NSSI in adolescents with MDD. Interventions targeted at improving resilience and depression may mitigate the impact of childhood trauma severity on NSSI risk in adolescents with MDD.

Reported history of childhood trauma, mentalizing deficits, and hypersomnia in adulthood: A mediational analysis in a nonclinical sample

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE

Existing research has confirmed the link between childhood trauma and poor sleep quality in adulthood. This study focused on the relationship between childhood trauma and hypersomnia specifically, which is understudied. Additionally, childhood maltreatment has been related to mentalizing deficits. The current study examined the role of mentalizing deficits as mediators between childhood trauma and hypersomnia.

METHOD

The study sample of this cross-sectional study consisted of 496 individuals, who participated in the online survey, which contained the following measures: Persian version of the Mini Sleep Questionnaire, Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (RFQ-8), and Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ).

RESULTS

The results from structural equation modeling indicated that emotional abuse positively predicts hypersomnia. Mediation analysis confirmed that hypo-mentalizing partially mediates the association between emotional abuse and hypersomnia.

CONCLUSION

The present study provides primary evidence that experiencing emotional abuse during childhood is associated with hypersomnia in adulthood. This association underlines the importance of prevention. The result from mediation analysis suggests addressing mentalizing impairments in patients with hypersomnia and a history of emotional abuse may be helpful.

The bridge symptoms of childhood trauma, sleep disorder and depressive symptoms: a network analysis

BACKGROUND

This study aimed to elucidate the characteristics of symptom network of childhood trauma (CT) and sleep disorder (SD) in Chinese adolescents, with the influence of depressive symptoms taken into account.

METHOD

A total of 1301 adolescent students were included, and their CT, SD and depressive symptoms were measured using the Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI), the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form (CTQ-SF), and The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), respectively. Central symptoms and bridge symptoms were identified based on centrality indices and bridge centrality indices, respectively. Network stability was examined using the case-dropping procedure.

RESULTS

In CT and SD symptom network, emotional abuse and sleep quality symptoms had the highest centrality values, and two bridge symptoms, i.e., emotional abuse and sleep disturbance symptoms, were also identified. In symptom network for CT, SD, and depressive symptoms, sleeping difficulty symptoms, daily dysfunction symptoms, and emotional abuse appeared to be potential bridge symptoms. In symptom network of CT, SD, and depressive symptoms (excluding the symptom of sleeping difficulty), daily dysfunction symptoms, emotional abuse, and sleep disturbance symptoms appeared to be bridge symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS

In this study, emotional abuse and poor sleep quality were found to be central symptoms in the CT-SD network structure among Chinese adolescent students, with daytime dysfunction as the bridge symptom in the CT-SD-depression network structure. Systemic multi-level interventions targeting the central symptoms and bridge symptoms may be effective in alleviating the co-occurrence of CT, SD and depression in this population.