1. The long shadow of childhood trauma for depression in midlife: examining daily psychological stress processes as a persistent risk pathway.
- Author
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Mayer, Stefanie E., Surachman, Agus, Prather, Aric A., Puterman, Eli, Delucchi, Kevin L., Irwin, Michael R., Danese, Andrea, Almeida, David M., and Epel, Elissa S.
- Subjects
PSYCHOLOGICAL stress ,MENTAL depression risk factors ,ADVERSE childhood experiences ,STRUCTURAL equation modeling ,CONFIDENCE intervals ,CHILD abuse ,RISK assessment ,DIARY (Literary form) ,RESEARCH funding ,ADULTS - Abstract
Background: 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. Methods: 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. Results: 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. Conclusions: 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2022
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