title: Childhood adversities and distress - The role of resilience in a representative sample.
abstract: While adverse childhood experiences have been shown to contribute to adverse health outcomes in adulthood, specifically distress and somatic symptoms, few studies have examined their joint effects with resilient coping style on adult adjustment. Hence, we aim to determine the association between resilient coping and distress in participants with and without reported childhood adversities. A representative German community sample (N = 2508) between 14-92 years (1334 women; 1174 men) was examined by the short form of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, the Brief Resilience Coping Scale, standardized scales of distress and somatoform symptoms. Childhood adversity was associated with reduced adjustment, social support and resilience. It was also strongly associated with increased distress and somatoform complaints. Resilient coping was not only associated with lower distress, it also buffered the effects of childhood adversity on distress. Our study corroborates the buffering effect of resilience in a representative German sample. High trait resilient subjects show less distress and somatoform symptoms despite reported childhood adversities in comparison to those with low resilient coping abilities.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: Manfred E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Beutel
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: Ana N
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Tibubos
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: Eva M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Klein
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Gabriele
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Schmutzer
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: Iris
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Reiner
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Psychology, University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Rüya-Daniela
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Kocalevent
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: Elmar
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Brähler
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D055500:Resilience, Psychological