Department of Maternal, Child & Adolescent Health, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, Anhui, China; Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
Department of Human Anatomy, Histology & Embryology, Anhui Medical College, Anhui, China.
Child Abuse Negl. 2022 Sep;131:105408. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2021.105408. Epub 2021 Nov 19.
Depressive symptoms are the most common mental disorder among adolescents, and its prevalence has been increasing in recent years. Although childhood maltreatment is a contributing factor to depressive symptoms among adolescents, the underlying mechanism of how this factor causes depressive symptoms is unclear.
This study aimed to investigate the mediating effects of parent-child relationship on the association between childhood maltreatment and depressive symptoms among adolescents and to identify how sex and only child status affect this association.
A total of 14,500 middle school students were randomly selected from four cities (Shenzhen, Zhengzhou, Nanchang, and Guiyang) in China. A survey questionnaire was administered to collect information on childhood maltreatment, parent-child relationship, and depressive symptoms. Pearson's correlation analysis was used in analyzing the relationship, Bootstrap method was used to test the mediating effects. A moderated mediation analysis has been used to determine the moderated mediation effect.
Childhood maltreatment significantly negatively correlated with parent-child relationship and positively correlated with depressive symptoms (P < 0.001). The indirect effect of parent-child relationship accounted for 20.60% of the total effect between childhood maltreatment and depressive symptoms in all respondents and differed by sex (boys, 17.00%; girls, 25.23%) and only child status (only child, 15.61%; child with siblings, 23.49%). Besides, the indirect effect of the mediation model was moderated by sex and only child status.
Childhood maltreatment increased the risk of depressive symptoms, and this relationship was partially mediated by parent-child relationship, sex and only child status have moderated the indirect relationship. These findings showed efforts aimed at enhancing the parent-child relationship may prevent or reduce the prevalence of depressive symptoms among adolescents, especially in girls and children with siblings.
抑郁症状是青少年中最常见的精神障碍，近年来其患病率一直在上升。虽然儿童期虐待是青少年抑郁症状的一个促成因素，但该因素导致抑郁症状的潜在机制尚不清楚。
本研究旨在探讨亲子关系在儿童期虐待与青少年抑郁症状之间的关系中的中介作用，并确定性别和独生子女身份如何影响这种关系。
本研究共从中国四个城市（深圳、郑州、南昌和贵阳）随机抽取了 14500 名中学生。采用问卷调查收集儿童期虐待、亲子关系和抑郁症状的信息。采用 Pearson 相关分析来分析关系，采用 Bootstrap 方法来检验中介效应。采用调节中介分析来确定调节中介效应。
儿童期虐待与亲子关系显著负相关，与抑郁症状显著正相关（P<0.001）。亲子关系的间接效应占儿童期虐待与抑郁症状总效应的 20.60%，且在所有被试者中存在性别差异（男孩，17.00%；女孩，25.23%）和独生子女身份差异（独生子女，15.61%；有兄弟姐妹的子女，23.49%）。此外，中介模型的间接效应受到性别和独生子女身份的调节。
儿童期虐待增加了抑郁症状的风险，这种关系部分通过亲子关系来介导，性别和独生子女身份调节了间接关系。这些发现表明，努力加强亲子关系可能有助于预防或降低青少年抑郁症状的发生率，尤其是在女孩和有兄弟姐妹的儿童中。
