The effects of childhood trauma on nonsuicidal self-injury and depressive severity among adolescents with major depressive disorder: The different mediating roles of positive and negative coping styles

Abstract

ObjectiveWe aimed to examine whether positive and negative coping styles mediated the influences of childhood trauma on NSSI or depressive severity in adolescents with major depressive disorder (MDD). MethodsThe Children's Depression Inventory (CDI), the Ottawa Self-Injury Inventory Chinese Revised Edition (OSIC), the short-form Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ-SF), and the Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire (SCSQ) were evaluated in 313 adolescents with MDD. ResultsMDD adolescents with NSSI had higher CTQ-SF total score, emotional and sexual abuse subscale scores, but lower CDI total and subscale scores compared to the patients without NSSI. The multiple linear regression analysis revealed that emotional abuse (β = 0.075, 95 % CI: 0.042–0.107) and ineffectiveness (β = −0.084, 95 % CI: −0.160 ∼ −0.009) were significantly associated with the frequency of NSSI in adolescents with MDD, but emotional abuse (β = 0.884, 95 % CI: 0.570–1.197), sexual abuse (β = 0.825, 95 % CI: 0.527–1.124) and negative coping style (β = 0.370, 95 % CI: 0.036–0.704) were independently associated with the depressive severity in these adolescents. Furthermore, the mediation analysis demonstrated that positive coping style partially mediates the effect of childhood trauma on NSSI (Indirect effect = 0.002, 95 % bootCI: 0.001–0.004), while the negative coping style partially mediates the relationship between childhood trauma and depressive severity (Indirect effect = 0.024, 95 % bootCI: 0.005–0.051) in adolescents with MDD. LimitationsA cross-sectional design, the retrospective self-reported data, the small sample size. ConclusionOur findings suggest that coping styles may serve as mediators on the path from childhood trauma to NSSI or depressive severity in MDD adolescents.