ArticlePsychology of violence2020
Childhood maltreatment and later stressful life events as predictors of depression: A test of the stress sensitization hypothesis.
Article in Psychology of violence, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers.
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Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 42 citations in OpenAlex.
- Group cognitive evolutionary therapy for depression: a protocol for a randomized controlled trial.Trials · 2026Trial
- Psychobiological mechanisms underlying the association between early life stress and depression in adolescence.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Review
- Stress and delusions in postgraduate medical students: the mediating role of anxiety and depression and the moderating role of trait impulsivity.BMC psychiatry · 2026Article
- Key factors and serial mediation analysis of anxiety and depression among university students: a cross-sectional study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Childhood maltreatment and adolescent non-suicidal self-injury: cross-sectional conditional process and network analyses of depressive symptoms and physical activity.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- The role of perinatal perceived stress in the setting of adverse childhood experience and perinatal anxiety and depressive symptoms.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Sex, early life adversity, and negative self-evaluation shape the association between negative life events and depressive symptoms in adolescence.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- From past to present: the connection of traumatic childhood experiences, recent stressful life events, and treatment expectations in depression.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2025Article
- Patterns of Adverse Childhood Experiences and Postpartum Depressive Symptoms.Journal of child & adolescent trauma · 2025Article
- Independent, Multiplicative, and Cumulative Effects of Recent Stressful Life Events and Adverse Childhood Events on Depressive Symptoms among College Students: Moderation by the HPA-axis Multilocus Genetic Variation.Journal of youth and adolescence · 2025Article
- Early-life adversity alters adult nucleus incertus neurons: implications for neuronal mechanisms of increased stress and compulsive behavior vulnerability.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2025Article
- A Multilevel Latent Class Analysis of Adolescent Engagement in Interpersonal Violence: The Role of Stressful Life Events, School Climate, and School Characteristics.Psychology of violence · 2025Article
- Impact of post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, childhood adversities and stressful life events on depressive and anxiety symptoms: insights from the UK Biobank.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Childhood unpredictability is associated with increased risk for long- and short-term depression and anhedonia symptoms following combat deployment.Journal of mood and anxiety disorders · 2024Article
- The Relationship between Childhood Abuse and Suicidal Ideation among Chinese College Students: The Mediating Role of Core Self-Evaluation and Negative Emotions.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Adverse childhood experiences, subsequent negative life events, and their impact on health in occupational rehabilitation patients: a mixed-methods study.Frontiers in rehabilitation sciences · 2024Article
- Early and recent military and nonmilitary stressors associated with posttraumatic stress symptoms among military service members and their spouses.Journal of traumatic stress · 2023Article
- Testing whether the combination of victimization and minority stressors exacerbate PTSD risks in a diverse community sample of sexual minority women.Psychology and sexuality · 2023Article
- Family-, School-, and Neighborhood-Level Predictors of Resilience for Adolescents with a History of Maltreatment.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Stress-related psychopathology during the COVID-19 pandemic.Behaviour research and therapy · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Objectives: Long-term negative effects of child maltreatment, including risk for depression, are well established. The role of acute stressors in the relationship between maltreatment and depression is not as clear. We used data from a prospective study to test a stress sensitization hypothesis; whether child maltreatment lowered the threshold at which adult household stressors impacted adult depression. We hypothesized that maltreatment would positively moderate the relationship between acute stressors and adult depressive symptoms. Method: Participants (n = 457) were majority White (~ 80%) and from low-income families (63%), and the sample was gender balanced (54% male) at the start of a 40-year longitudinal study examining the causes and consequences of child maltreatment. Regression analyses tested a main effects model for adult depression, modeled as a function of proximal adult household stressors and officially recorded child maltreatment, and controlled for measures of prior depression, household stress, and sociodemographic factors. A second model added the interaction between maltreatment and stressors to test the stress sensitization hypothesis. Results: Maltreatment had a positive overall association with adult depression. This association was not significant after taking into account adult stressors and other controls. Adult stressors had a unique, positive association with depression. The association between adult stressors and depression was stronger for participants with histories of child maltreatment. Conclusions: Child maltreatment increases sensitivity to later stressors, adding to the risk for depression. Findings are generally consistent with prior studies linking child maltreatment, stress, and later depression and provide support for stress sensitization extending into adulthood.
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