Child Maltreatment, Altered Self-Capacities and Resilience: Testing a Moderated Mediation Model of Depression Symptoms and Alcohol Problems in Emerging Adulthood

Abstract

Objectives: Although it is well established that resilience moderates the effects of child maltreatment on mental health, less is known about the effects of resilience on pathways from child maltreatment to depression symptoms and alcohol problems. Previous researchers have found that difficulties with relationships, identity and affect control (i.e., altered self-capacities; Briere & Runtz, 2002), are important antecedents of child maltreatment and are linked to challenges in adulthood. The current study tested a moderated mediation model of the relationship between childhood maltreatment, altered self-capacities, resilience and both depression symptoms and alcohol problems during emerging adulthood. Methods: Participants were 277 emerging adults (ages 18-24, M = 21.06; SD = 1.93; 69.3% female) recruited from the community who completed an online survey. Using PROCESS (Hayes, 2012), we examined a moderated mediation model of the relationship between child maltreatment, resilience, altered self-capacities, and both depression symptoms and alcohol problems. Results: Problems with identity and affect control mediated the relationship between child maltreatment and depression symptoms, whereas only problems with affect control mediated the relationship between child maltreatment and alcohol problems. In addition, resilience moderated the relationship between child maltreatment and alcohol problems and positively attenuated the relationship between child maltreatment and depression symptoms through identity problems. Conclusion and Implications: These findings provide a more nuanced understanding of the mechanisms that link child maltreatment to outcomes in emerging adulthood and highlight resilience and difficulties with identity and affect control as important prevention and intervention targets.