Abstract
Childhood trauma (CT) increases the risk of adult depression. Buffering effects require an understanding of the underlying persistent risk pathways. This study examined whether daily psychological stress processes - how an individual interprets and affectively responds to minor everyday events - mediate the effect of CT on adult depressive symptoms. Middle-aged women (N = 183) reported CT at baseline and completed daily diaries of threat appraisals and negative evening affect for 7 days at baseline, 9, and 18 months. Depressive symptoms were measured across the 1.5-year period. Mediation was examined using multilevel structural equation modeling. Reported CT predicted greater depressive symptoms over the 1.5-year time period (estimate = 0.27, s.e. = 0.07, 95% CI 0.15-0.38, p < 0.001). Daily threat appraisals and negative affect mediated the effect of reported CT on depressive symptoms (estimate = 0.34, s.e. = 0.08, 95% CI 0.22-0.46, p < 0.001). Daily threat appraisals explained more than half of this effect (estimate = 0.19, s.e. = 0.07, 95% CI 0.08-0.30, p = 0.004). Post hoc analyses in individuals who reported at least moderate severity of CT showed that lower threat appraisals buffered depressive symptoms. A similar pattern was found in individuals who reported no/low severity of CT. A reported history of CT acts as a latent vulnerability, exaggerating threat appraisals of everyday events, which trigger greater negative evening affect - processes that have important mental health consequences and may provide malleable intervention targets.
Highlights
IntroductionTraumatic childhood experiences (physical, sexual, emotional abuse, and neglect) can leave ‘scars’ on adult life – increasing risk for mental health disorders, including depression (Green et al, 2010; Kendler et al, 2000; Kessler, Davis, & Kendler, 1997)
Traumatic childhood experiences can leave ‘scars’ on adult life – increasing risk for mental health disorders, including depression (Green et al, 2010; Kendler et al, 2000; Kessler, Davis, & Kendler, 1997)
The structural equation model was contrasted to a two-level multilevel structural equation modeling (MSEM) finding where we examined whether daily stress processes mediated the association between reported Childhood trauma (CT) and depressive symptoms
Summary
Traumatic childhood experiences (physical, sexual, emotional abuse, and neglect) can leave ‘scars’ on adult life – increasing risk for mental health disorders, including depression (Green et al, 2010; Kendler et al, 2000; Kessler, Davis, & Kendler, 1997). Buffering these effects requires an understanding of the underlying risk pathways. Cognitive-affective stress processes have been proposed as one pathway linking childhood trauma (CT) to adult health (Epel et al, 2018; Miller, Chen, & Parker, 2011) We hypothesized that reported CT will predict higher depressive symptoms, which will be mediated by more maladaptive daily stress processes (greater threat appraisals and greater negative affect)
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