Childhood Family Violence and Depressive Symptoms in Urban Chinese Women: The Moderating Role of Social Contact Frequency

Guided by the stress process model, this study examined whether childhood family violence—specifically, parental physical abuse (PPA) and witnessing interparental violence (WIPV)—was associated with depressive symptoms among ever-married women in Beijing and Chengdu, China, and whether these associations were moderated by social contact frequency. Drawing on data from the 2020 Family and Health Survey (N = 1849), we used ordinary least squares regression with heteroskedasticity-robust standard errors and conducted supplementary sensitivity analyses. In separate models, both PPA and WIPV were positively associated with depressive symptoms. Social contact frequency showed no significant main effect, but its interactions with both PPA and WIPV were significantly negative, a pattern consistent with the stress-buffering hypothesis. In combined models including both violence types, WIPV retained a significant unique association with depressive symptoms, whereas the PPA association was attenuated. The moderation findings suggest that social contact frequency may condition the violence–depression relationship, underscoring the potential importance of social relationships for responses to early-life adversity.