title: Emotion dysregulation as a mediator between childhood emotional abuse and current depression in a low-income African-American sample.
abstract: Abuse and neglect in childhood are well-established risk factors for later psychopathology. Past research has suggested that childhood emotional abuse may be particularly harmful to psychological development. The current cross-sectional study employed multiple regression techniques to assess the effects of childhood trauma on adulthood depression and emotion dysregulation in a large sample of mostly low-income African Americans recruited in an urban hospital. Bootstrap analyses were used to test emotion dysregulation as a potential mediator between emotional abuse in childhood and current depression. Childhood emotional abuse significantly predicted depressive symptoms even when accounting for all other childhood trauma types, and we found support for a complementary mediation of this relationship by emotion dysregulation. Our findings highlight the importance of emotion dysregulation and childhood emotional abuse in relation to adult depression. Moving forward, clinicians should consider the particular importance of emotional abuse in the development of depression, and future research should seek to identify mechanisms through which emotional abuse increases risk for depression and emotion dysregulation.
authors.affiliation: Emory University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, 49 Jesse Hill Dr SE, Atlanta, GA 30303, USA.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Crow
authors.affiliation: Emory University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, 49 Jesse Hill Dr SE, Atlanta, GA 30303, USA.
authors.forename: Dorthie
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cross
authors.affiliation: Emory University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, 49 Jesse Hill Dr SE, Atlanta, GA 30303, USA.
authors.forename: Abigail
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Powers
authors.affiliation: Atlanta VA Medical Center, Mental Health Service, 1670 Clairmont Road, Decatur, GA 30033, USA; Emory University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, 49 Jesse Hill Dr SE, Atlanta, GA 30303, USA.
authors.forename: Bekh
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bradley
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000523:psychology*; D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000523:psychology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011203:Poverty / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D014504:Urban Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Depression; Emotion dysregulation; Emotional abuse