The relationship between childhood trauma and suicidal ideation, the mediating role of identification of all humanity, indifference and loneliness

Abstract

BackgroundResearch shows that childhood trauma has a detrimental impact on an individual's health, including suicidal ideation. In order to intervene with suicidal ideation, it is necessary to study the impact of childhood trauma on emotional and social functioning. This study explored the relationship between childhood trauma and suicidal ideation from the perspectives of indifference, identification with all humanity, and loneliness. MethodsA total number of 8,452 college students completed the study. Childhood trauma was measured by the short form of Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ-SF). The Identification With All Humanity scale (IWAH) was used to measure individual's ability to identify or not identify with humanity. For indifference, we used the Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits, and Loneliness was assessed by the Loneliness Scale. The relationship of indifference, identification with all humanity, and loneliness were explored to further understand the relationship between childhood trauma and suicidal ideation's correlations, regression analysis, and path analysis were employed for data analysis. ResultsChildhood trauma was positively correlated with indifference, loneliness, and suicidal ideation, and negatively correlated with identification with all humanity (r = −0.140∼0.335, p < .001). Suicidal ideation was positively correlated with indifference and loneliness, and negatively correlated with identification with all humanity (r = −0.082∼0.260, p < .001). The results indicated that childhood trauma leads to indifference, which increases loneliness, and results in suicidal ideation (β = 0.073∼0.335, p < 0.001). If an individual with childhood trauma were to gain more recognition from social groups, this would reduce their loneliness and suicidal ideation (β = −0.125∼0.228, p < 0.001). DiscussionIndividuals with childhood trauma were more likely to display apathy, including non-emotional behavior. This makes individuals lonelier and may increase suicidal ideation. However, if individuals are further recognized by others and social groups within their environment it is possible to intervene in this process.