Journal article
The long shadow of childhood trauma for depression in midlife: examining daily psychological stress processes as a persistent risk pathway
Psychological medicine, v 52(16), pp 4029-4038
01 Dec 2022
PMID: 33766171
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
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.
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Details
- Title
- The long shadow of childhood trauma for depression in midlife: examining daily psychological stress processes as a persistent risk pathway
- Creators
- Stefanie E. Mayer - Univ Calif San Francisco, Dept Psychiat & Behav Sci, San Francisco, CA 94143 USAAgus Surachman - Pennsylvania State UniversityAric A. Prather - University of California, San FranciscoEli Puterman - University of British ColumbiaKevin L. Delucchi - University of California, San FranciscoMichael R. Irwin - UCLA, Semel Inst Neurosci & Human Behav, Cousins Ctr Psychoneuroimmunol, Los Angeles, CA 90024 USAAndrea Danese - South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation TrustDavid M. Almeida - Pennsylvania State UniversityElissa S. Epel - University of California, San Francisco
- Publication Details
- Psychological medicine, v 52(16), pp 4029-4038
- Publisher
- Cambridge Univ Press
- Number of pages
- 10
- Grant note
- K99AG062778 / National Institute On Aging (NIA) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) T32AG049676 / NIA; United States Department of Health & Human Services; National Institutes of Health (NIH) - USA; NIH National Institute on Aging (NIA) Jean Britton Graduate Fellowship
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Dana and David Dornsife School of Public Health; Epidemiology and Biostatistics
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000785772900001
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85103343422
- Other Identifier
- 991021448030804721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- International collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Psychiatry
- Psychology
- Psychology, Clinical