Marshall Carley, Langevin Rachel
School/Applied Child Psychology, Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, McGill University, 3700 McTavish St., Montreal, Quebec, H3A 1Y2 Canada.
Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, McGill University, 3700 McTavish St., Montreal, Quebec, H3A 1Y2 Canada.
J Child Adolesc Trauma. 2021 Apr 24;15(1):53-64. doi: 10.1007/s40653-021-00356-y. eCollection 2022 Mar.
Maltreatment among school-aged children is associated with negative impacts on development and can contribute to the onset of psychological difficulties, including early depressive symptoms. Maltreatment can have devasting consequences, thus it is important to better understand the mechanisms contributing to children's psychological outcomes. The objective of this study was to examine children's personality functioning (ego control and ego resiliency) as mediators of the association between substantiated maltreatment and depression. A total of 300 school-aged children were followed over the course of 3 years in the context of a summer camp (168 maltreated children; 132 non-maltreated children). Maltreatment status was determined through cases referred by the Monroe County Department of Social Services, New York. Ego control and ego resiliency at year 2 (T2), as measured by camp counselors using the California Child Q-Set, were tested as mediators. Children's depressive symptoms were self-reported using the Childhood Depression Inventory at year 3 (T3). A parallel mediation model was tested using Mplus. Maltreatment was not directly associated with depression at either time point, but significantly predicted both mediators. Ego undercontrol significantly predicted increased depressive symptoms at T3, while there was no significant prediction by ego resiliency. These findings point to the longitudinal paths to early depressive symptoms in maltreated children and the mediating effect of children's ego control which could be a target for intervention.
学龄儿童遭受虐待与对其发育产生负面影响相关，且可能促使心理问题的出现，包括早期抑郁症状。虐待可能会造成毁灭性后果，因此，更好地了解导致儿童心理结果的机制非常重要。本研究的目的是检验儿童的人格功能（自我控制和自我复原力）作为已证实的虐待与抑郁之间关联的中介因素。在一个夏令营的环境中，对总共300名学龄儿童进行了为期3年的跟踪研究（168名受虐待儿童；132名未受虐待儿童）。虐待状况通过纽约门罗县社会服务部转介的案例来确定。由夏令营辅导员使用加利福尼亚儿童Q分类法在第2年（T2）测量的自我控制和自我复原力被作为中介因素进行检验。在第3年（T3），使用儿童抑郁量表对儿童的抑郁症状进行自我报告。使用Mplus软件对平行中介模型进行了检验。在两个时间点上，虐待均未与抑郁直接相关，但显著预测了两个中介因素。自我控制不足显著预测了T3时抑郁症状的增加，而自我复原力则没有显著的预测作用。这些发现指出了受虐待儿童出现早期抑郁症状的纵向路径以及儿童自我控制的中介作用，而自我控制可能是一个干预靶点。
