ArticleJournal of affective disorders2026
Do purpose in life and self-directedness mediate the effects of child abuse on anxiety and depression symptoms 18 years later?
Article in Journal of affective disorders, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Network analysis of childhood trauma and meaning in life in adolescents with and without depression.BMC psychology · 2026Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundChildhood maltreatment is a transdiagnostic risk factor that is robustly associated with the development of anxiety and depressive disorder symptoms in adulthood. This study thus aimed to investigate potential mediators between early childhood abuse and adult psychopathology severity using data from an 18-year longitudinal study among community-dwelling adults in the U.S. POPULATION:
methodRetrospective self-reports of maternal and paternal abuse from Wave 1 (W1) were used to predict symptom severity of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) at Wave 3 (W3) for a sample of 3,294 adults. Self-reported purpose in life and self-directedness measured at Wave 2 (W2) were examined as potential mediators of this relationship. Each assessment wave was spaced about nine years apart. All models adjusted for W1 symptom severity.
resultsResults from longitudinal structural equation modeling (SEM) revealed a significant mediating effect of lower W2 purpose in life in the relationship between higher W1 maternal and paternal child abuse and greater W3 GAD and MDD symptoms in adulthood (Cohen's d range = 0.221-0.279). Further, lower W2 self-directedness mediated the association between greater W1 paternal child abuse and higher W3 GAD severity (d = 0.209) but not between W1 maternal abuse and W3 GAD symptoms in adulthood. W2 self-directedness also did not mediate the effects of child abuse on adulthood MDD symptoms. DISCUSSION: Raising a sense of purpose in life and self-directedness might be key treatment targets to treat and prevent GAD and MDD in adults who experienced maltreatment in childhood.
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