Shame as a mediator of the association of childhood emotional abuse with aversive cognitive perseveration in adults.

Childhood emotional abuse (CEA) has been linked to response-focused emotion regulation in adulthood. However, the underlying mechanisms remain unexplored. This pre-registered study examined whether shame mediates the association between CEA history and aversive cognitive perseveration (ACP), including brooding rumination, experiential avoidance and emotional non-acceptance, in adulthood. Ninety-three undergraduates (66.6% female; age: 21.62 [7.63]) completed self-report measures of maltreatment history, trait shame and trait ACP and underwent a piloted shame induction task using a within-subject design. The assessment involved baseline and post-induction reactive-state shame and negative affect, subsequent use of reactive-state ACP and engagement strategies, followed by childhood maltreatment and trait measures. Two sets of state and trait mediation models were tested using Bayesian estimation, adjusting for reactive-state negative affect, reactive-state engagement strategies and the sum of physical abuse, emotional neglect and physical neglect histories. The models primarily supported the association of shame with ACP across state and trait models. CEA history was associated with reactive-state and trait ACP through the indirect effect of trait (but not reactive-state) shame. A post-hoc moderation analysis suggested reduced post-induction shame and ACP use for moderate-to-severe CEA history, which was tentatively attributed to the involvement of aberrant stress reactivity associated with higher CEA history.