ArticleBMC psychiatry2023
Childhood maltreatment and subsequent depressive symptoms: a prospective study of the sequential mediating role of self-esteem and internalizing/externalizing problems.
Article in BMC psychiatry, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 13 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Relationship Between Negative Self-Concept, Trauma, and Maltreatment in Children and Adolescents: A Meta-Analysis.Clinical child and family psychology review · 2024Pooled it
- Long term impact of child abuse in university students.BMC psychiatry · 2026Observational
- Bidirectional Association Between Psychological Resilience and Depression in Early Adolescents: the Predictive Role of Childhood Maltreatment.Child psychiatry and human development · 2026Article
- Longitudinal relation between childhood maltreatment and problematic internet game use among Chinese early adolescents: The roles of internalizing symptoms and FKBP5 gene variation.Journal of behavioral addictions · 2025Article
- Mechanisms of childhood trauma: an integrative review of a multimodal, transdiagnostic pathway.Neurobiology of stress · 2025Review
- Associations between childhood maltreatment and personality traits in individuals with and without depression: a CTQ-based assessment.BMC psychology · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
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Abstract
backgroundDepression among adolescents is a seriously disabling public health problem with an extremely high prevalence. Identifying risk factors of depression at an early stage is important to reduce the disease burden. Childhood maltreatment (CM) is one of the major risk factors for depression. The key mediating processes that how CM affects the development of depression, however, still need further clarification. The present study tested the mediating effect of self-esteem, internalizing problems, and externalizing problems between CM and depressive symptoms. Potential sex differences in the foregoing associations were also explored.
methodsA three-wave longitudinal study was carried out among 1,957 middle and high school students from 69 classes in 10 public schools in the Guangdong province of China. Data collection started when students were in grades 7 and 10 (median age: 13.0, range: 11-18) between January and April 2019, and the students were followed up once a year thereafter. Self-reported CM, depressive symptoms, self-esteem, internalizing and externalizing problems, and other demographics were collected. The multiple serial mediation analysis was conducted.
resultsWe found that CM was positively related to subsequent internalizing and externalizing problems, as well as depressive symptoms, while self-esteem was negatively related to depressive symptoms. Serial mediation analysis indicated that self-esteem (mediator 1) and internalizing problems (mediator 2) sequentially mediated the path from CM to depressive symptoms in the overall and male population. Moreover, with externalizing problems as mediator 2, self-esteem (mediator 1) acted as a partial mediator in the association between CM and depressive symptoms in males, whereas externalizing problems played a complete mediating role in females.
conclusionFindings revealed that self-esteem and internalizing problems sequentially mediated the influence of CM on depressive symptoms whereas externalizing problems played an independent mediating role. In addition, sex differences need to be taken into consideration when designing prevention and intervention strategies, given the different psychosocial processes between boys and girls.
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