Psychology Department, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2020 Dec 11;15(12):e0243881. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0243881. eCollection 2020.
Converging empirical evidence indicates that exposure to adversity in childhood is associated with increased vulnerability to mental health problems in adulthood. As early life adversity has the potential to alter an individual's appraisal of threat, we hypothesized that individuals exposed to adversity in childhood may also exhibit increased threat from environmental stressors, which in turn may impact their state anxiety levels. We examined the relations between adverse childhood experiences, assessed using the Adverse Childhood Experiences Scale (ACEs), perceived threat from COVID-19, and state anxiety in a sample of adults. Additionally, flexibility is implicated in adaptive coping with life's stressors so we also assessed participants' cognitive flexibility. Parallel mediation regression analyses revealed that both perceived threat from COVID-19 and flexibility in the appraisal of challenges mediated the influence of maltreatment, but not household dysfunction, on state anxiety. Our data indicate that experience with early life adversity in the form of maltreatment is associated with increased perceived threat from COVID-19, which results in higher anxiety levels for the individual. In contrast, childhood maltreatment is associated with reduced flexibility in appraising challenges, which in turn mediates the relationship between maltreatment and anxiety. The findings of this study adds to the limited literature on the impact of early life adversity on cognitive flexibility and highlights the psychological toll of COVID-19 on individuals who have been exposed to adverse childhood experiences.
越来越多的经验证据表明，儿童时期的逆境经历与成年后患心理健康问题的脆弱性增加有关。由于早期逆境有可能改变个体对威胁的评估，我们假设儿童时期经历过逆境的个体可能也会对环境压力源表现出更高的威胁感，而这反过来可能会影响他们的状态焦虑水平。我们在成年人样本中检查了使用不良童年经历量表（ACEs）评估的不良童年经历、对 COVID-19 的感知威胁与状态焦虑之间的关系。此外，灵活性与应对生活压力的适应性有关，因此我们还评估了参与者的认知灵活性。平行中介回归分析表明，COVID-19 的感知威胁和对挑战的评估灵活性都介导了虐待对状态焦虑的影响，但家庭功能障碍则没有。我们的数据表明，以虐待形式出现的早期生活逆境经历与对 COVID-19 的感知威胁增加有关，这会导致个体的焦虑水平升高。相比之下，儿童期虐待与评估挑战的灵活性降低有关，这反过来又介导了虐待与焦虑之间的关系。这项研究的结果增加了关于早期生活逆境对认知灵活性影响的有限文献，并强调了 COVID-19 对经历过不良童年经历的个体的心理影响。
