Mediating effects of social supports between childhood abuse and mental health in graduate students / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore whether childhood abuse experiences predict higher levels of depression and lower levels of self-esteem for graduate students and examine the mediating role of social support between childhood abuse and mental health.Methods A sample of 907 graduate students were investigated with the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ-SF),Perceived Social Support Scale (PSSS),Self-esteem Scale (SES) and Center for Epidemiological Survey Scale (CESD).Results The scores of childhood abuse,social support,self-esteem,and depression of graduate students were (33.88±9.35),(68.31±12.01),(36.62±4.80) and (35.85± 9.20).Childhood abuse was negatively correlated with self-esteem (r=-0.32,P＜0.01),but positively correlated with depression (r=0.28,P＜0.01),and negatively correlated with social support (r=-0.44,P＜0.01).Social support was positively correlated with self-esteem (r=0.39,P＜0.01),and negatively correlated with depression (r=-0.41,P ＜0.01).Examining the mediation model indicated that social support had a partial mediation effects(42％) on the relationship between childhood abuse and self-esteem,and social support had a partial mediation effects(54％) on the relationship between childhood abuse and depression.Conclusions The childhood abuse not only affects the graduate student's self-esteem and depression directly,but also can take the same effect by social support indirectly.