Effect of Childhood Trauma on Personality Traits and Resilience in Middle-aged Adults — An Intervention Study based on Mindfulness: Review of Literature

Abstract

Experiencing traumatic events especially in one’s childhood can have a very lasting effect on an individual. Traumatic experiences have been known to possess a risk factor of developing depression, anxiety and other psychiatric disorders. Traumatic experiences can alter the development of an individual’s personality and may affect their resilience skills as well. Mindfulness helps in bringing heightened awareness of sensory stimuli and being “in the now”, which can significantly reduce feelings of sadness, or tension, or stress. The aim of the review was to summarize the effects of childhood trauma on personality traits and resilience in middle-aged adults and the possible use of mindfulness as an intervention. An electronic search was carried out through published scholarly articles in Google Scholar and Semantic Scholar (from the last 10 years) with the following keywords: childhood trauma, personality traits, resilience, mindfulness. Based on the keywords, 12 articles were selected in accordance with the selection criteria. Mindfulness-based interventions has been on the uprise in recent times. It can be used as a successful and beneficial coping mechanism in dealing with childhood trauma. Based on the results of the available literature, mindfulness-based interventions can be useful in building resilience and personality traits to help cope with effects of childhood trauma in individuals.