TY - JOUR
T1 - The long shadow of childhood trauma for depression in midlife
T2 - examining daily psychological stress processes as a persistent risk pathway
AU - Mayer, Stefanie E.
AU - Surachman, Agus
AU - Prather, Aric A.
AU - Puterman, Eli
AU - Delucchi, Kevin L.
AU - Irwin, Michael R.
AU - Danese, Andrea
AU - Almeida, David M.
AU - Epel, Elissa S.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press.
PY - 2022/12/26
Y1 - 2022/12/26
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
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U2 - 10.1017/S0033291721000921
DO - 10.1017/S0033291721000921
M3 - Article
C2 - 33766171
AN - SCOPUS:85103343422
SN - 0033-2917
VL - 52
SP - 4029
EP - 4038
JO - Psychological medicine
JF - Psychological medicine
IS - 16
ER -