Influence of childhood abuse on the presence of depressive symptom in junior high school students： the effecting path of peer attachment and emotional resilience

BackgroundDepression as a major mental health condition is commonly found in junior high school students. Peer attachment， emotional resilience and childhood abuse have been found to be associated with depressive symptoms， and it has been hypothesized that peer attachment and emotional resilience may play a chained effecting path in the relationship between childhood abuse and depressive symptoms in junior high school students.ObjectiveTo explore the relationship between childhood abuse and depressive symptom in junior high school students， analyze the effecting path of peer attachment and emotional resilience， thus to provide references for improving the mental health of junior high school students.MethodsFrom May to July 2022， a cluster sampling technique was utilized to recruit 1 781 junior high school students from a junior high school in Anhui province. Childhood Trauma Questionnaire Short Form （CTQ-SF）， Revised version of Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment （IPPA-R）， Adolescent' Emotional Resilience Questionnaire （AERQ） and Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale （CES-D） were used as the measurement tools. Pearson correlation coefficient was calculated to assess the correlation among above scales. Process4.2 and Bootstrapping method were employed to verify the effecting path of peer attachment and emotional resilience in the relationship between childhood abuse and depressive symptoms.ResultsCTQ-SF score was negatively correlated with IPPA-R peer attachment subscale score and AERQ score （r=-0.527， -0.495， P<0.01） and positively correlated with CES-D score （r=0.669， P<0.01） in junior high school students. IPPA-R peer attachment subscale score was positively correlated with AERQ score （r=0.556， P<0.01） and negatively correlated with CES-D score （r=-0.599， P<0.01） in junior high school students. AERQ score was negatively correlated with CES-D score （r=-0.698， P<0.01） in junior high school students. Childhood abuse in junior high school students was shown to be a positive predictor of depressive symptoms （β=0.675， P<0.01） and a negative predictor of peer attachment （β=-0.824， P<0.01） and emotional resilience （β=-0.305， P<0.01）. Peer attachment and emotional resilience were independent effecting path between childhood abuse and depressive symptoms， with indirect effect size of 0.093 （95% CI： 0.066~0.122） and 0.108 （95% CI： 0.084~0.133）， respectively. Peer attachment and emotional resilience affected as a chain effecting path between childhood abuse and depressive symptoms， with indirect effect size of 0.087 （95% CI： 0.071~0.105）， accounting for 12.89% of the total effect.ConclusionChildhood abuse in junior high school students can affect the presence of depressive symptom both directly and indirectly through either separate or chained effecting path of peer attachment and emotional resilience. ［Funded by 2020 Provincial General Scientific Research Project of West Anhui Health Vocational College （number， KJ2020B006）； 2024 Provincial University Natural and Humanities Sciences Research Project of West Anhui Health Vocational College （number， 2024AH053467）］