Dampening of positive affect partially accounts for the association between women’s history of child maltreatment and current depressive symptoms

Results suggest that emotion suppression strategies among child maltreatment survivors may also extend to positive affect, with impairments in specific regulation strategies. Currently dysphoric women with a history of child maltreatment tend to dampen their positive moods and reactions to events as well as ruminate on their dysphoric moods, both tendencies accounted for unique variance in current depression risk. Longitudinal research is warranted to clarify the role of alterations in positive emotion regulations strategies in understanding how child maltreatment fosters risk for psychopathology such as depression.