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- Title
Linking childhood maltreatment and depressive symptoms: identity, shame, and age effects.
- Authors
Labonté, Laura E.; Kealy, David
- Abstract
Background: While important links have been described between childhood abuse and propensity to develop depressive disorders in adult life, less is known about mechanisms, such as identity and shame, that may contribute to this relationship and the effects of age. Objective: We examined the association between perceived childhood abuse and depressive symptoms––with age as a potential moderating variable––and including dysfunctional identity and shame as mediators of this relation. Methods: This cross-sectional correlational study recruited 393 participants through the Prolific Academic platform. Average age was 34.26 (SD = 12.67; range = 18–75); 69.5% identified as women, 29% as men, and 1.3% as non-binary gender. Validated scales assessed childhood abuse history (abuse subscale of the Measure of Parental Style), identity dysfunction (self-Concept and Identity Measure), shame (abbreviated version of the Personal Feelings Questionnaire-2) and depressive symptoms (Patient Health Questionnaire-8). Linear regression was used to examine moderation effects, and conditional process modelling, combining moderation with parallel mediation effects. Results: Age moderated the childhood abuse-depressive symptom relationship F(3, 389) = 28.595, R2 =.181, p <.001, most significantly for individuals younger than 49. Identity dysfunction and shame mediated the abuse-depression association, moderated by age; F(3, 389) = 33.045, R2 =.203, p <.001; F(4, 389) = 67.151, R2 =.409, p <.001, respectively. Both parallel and sequential mediation effects were significant among younger adults. Conclusions: Childhood abuse may be linked with depressive symptom severity among young adults through mechanisms of identity dysfunction and generalized shame––both in parallel and sequentially. This finding suggests possibilities for targeting identity and shame in clinical interventions among young adults with histories of childhood abuse.
- Subjects
CHILD abuse; MENTAL depression; YOUNG adults; SHAME; NONBINARY people; AGE
- Publication
Current Psychology, 2024, Vol 43, Issue 13, p11904
- ISSN
1046-1310
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s12144-023-05274-w