SynthesisJournal of traumatic stress2026
Psychological mediators of the associations between adverse and benevolent childhood experiences and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex PTSD: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Journal of traumatic stress, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Adverse and benevolent childhood experiences (ACEs and BCEs, respectively) are uniquely associated with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex PTSD (CPTSD); however, there is no systematic review on the mechanisms of these associations. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to synthesize studies considering psychological mediators of the associations between ACEs/BCEs and PTSD/CPTSD. Databases (PsychINFO, PubMed, PTSDpubs, PsycARTICLES, and Web of Science) were searched from inception to August 2025 for peer reviewed studies of adult populations examining psychological mediators of the associations between ACEs or BCEs and PTSD or CPTSD. A total of 63 studies involving 31,540 participants met the inclusion criteria. Mediators were grouped into six categories: cognitive beliefs and appraisals (n = 33), emotion regulation strategies (n = 40), interpersonal relationships (n = 7), spiritual and religious beliefs (n = 2), attachment style (n = 5), and dissociation symptoms (n = 9), with mostly small effect sizes. Subcategory meta-analysis revealed emotion regulation, β = .4, 95% CI [0.001, 0.78], and maladaptive coping strategies, β = .05, 95% CI [0.03, 0.07], significantly mediated the association between ACEs and PTSD. Risk of bias and quality of evidence were assessed. Overall, evidence was insufficient to determine how mediators function across pathways, and a paucity of literature is highlighted, considering BCEs and CPTSD.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.