Childhood Abuse and Depression in Emerging Adults: The Mediating Role of Regulatory Emotional Self-Efficacy and the Moderating Role of Subjective Social Status.

MENTAL depression risk factors; RISK assessment; CROSS-sectional method; EMOTION regulation; PEARSON correlation (Statistics); SELF-efficacy; RESEARCH funding; CHILD abuse; UNIVERSITIES & colleges; QUESTIONNAIRES; SOCIAL status; SURVEYS; EXPERIENCE; STUDENTS; COLLEGE students; STUDENT attitudes; ADULTS

Depression is a common health issue among college students, and its prevalence has been increasing in recent years. Numerous studies have indicated that experiences of childhood abuse may be a contributing factor to the development of depression. However, the underlying mechanism in this relationship remains unclear. The current study aimed to investigate the mediating effect of regulatory emotional self-efficacy in the relationship between childhood abuse and depression and to identify the moderating effect of subjective social status. A cross-sectional study was conducted with 1105 college students from several universities in Sichuan Province, China. A survey questionnaire was employed to collect information on childhood abuse, subjective social status, regulatory emotional self-efficacy, and depression. Pearson correlation analysis was used to explore the correlation between childhood abuse and depression. The bootstrap method was employed to test the mediating effect of regulatory emotional self-efficacy and the moderating effect of subjective social status. The results showed that childhood abuse was significantly positively correlated with depression (p < 0.001), regulatory emotional self-efficacy mediated the relationship between childhood abuse and depression, and subjective social status moderated the mediating path. Childhood abuse could affect depression by reducing subjective social status and regulatory emotional self-efficacy. These findings indicated that enhancing regulatory emotional self-efficacy and subjective social status may prevent or reduce depressive symptoms in college students, especially in those with left-behind experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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