ABSTRACT
Objective:To explore the relationship between childhood trauma and aggressive behavior in patients with major depressive disorder(MDD), and the mediating role of self-esteem in childhood trauma and aggression.Methods:A total of 241 MDD patients with childhood trauma were investigated by Chinese version of the Buss & Perry aggression questionnaire(AQ-CV) and self-esteem scale (SES). Data were analyzed by SPSS 23.0 and AMOS 24.0.Pearson correlation analysis was used to assess the correlation of childhood trauma, aggressive behavior and self-esteem.The Bootstrap method was applied to test the mediating effect of self-esteem between childhood trauma and aggressive behavior.Results:The total score of attack questionnaire, self-esteem and childhood trauma were (48.81±18.81), (24.91±5.29)and(53.87±10.43), respectively. Self-esteem of MDD patients was negatively correlated with aggressive behavior and childhood trauma ( r=-0.45, -0.24, P<0.01). Childhood trauma was positively correlated with aggressive behavior ( r=0.42, P<0.01). The direct effect of childhood trauma on aggressive behavior was 0.438(95% CI: 0.305, 0.579). Self-esteem played a partly mediating effect between childhood trauma and aggressive behavior, and the mediating effect value was 0.161 (95% CI: 0.080, 0.256), accounted for 26.9% of the total effect. Conclusion:Self-esteem plays a partly mediating role between childhood trauma and aggressive behavior.Childhood trauma can directly and through the part of mediating role of self-esteem affect aggressive behavior.