Social Cognition as Mediator of Romantic Breakup Adjustment in Young Adults Who Experienced Childhood Maltreatment.

ABSTRACT

The current study investigated whether childhood maltreatment and social cognition (emotional regulation, mentalization, causal attributions) are associated with romantic breakup adjustment in youth (resilience, psychiatric symptoms, distress); and whether social cognition mediates the relationship between childhood maltreatment and adjustment to romantic breakup. We assessed childhood maltreatment, social cognition, and romantic breakup adjustment in a sample of 482 university students who experienced a romantic breakup recently. Linear regressions and mediation analyses were computed. Childhood maltreatment was associated with romantic breakup adjustment when mediators were considered (p < .01) and when they were not (p < .01). Only emotional regulation was linked with measures of breakup adjustment (p < .01), while mentalization and personal control demonstrated relationships with resilience (p < .01) and psychiatric symptoms (p < .01; p < .05). Childhood maltreatment was indirectly associated with romantic breakup adjustment through emotional regulation (p < .05). Childhood maltreatment was indirectly associated with psychiatric symptoms through mentalization (p < .05), while childhood maltreatment was indirectly associated with romantic breakup adjustment through self-related mentalization (p < .05). The current study provides further evidence that emotional regulation and mentalization may act as protective factors on romantic breakup adjustment in the context of childhood maltreatment.

KEYWORDS:

• Childhood maltreatment
• social cognition
• romantic breakup
• youth
• emotional regulation
• mentalization
• mediation
• attribution

Disclosure of Interest

Authors Audrey Francoeur, Tania Lecomte, Isabelle Daigneault, Audrey Brassard, Véronique Lecours & Catherine Hache-Labelle declare that they have no conflicts to report.

Ethical Standards and Informed Consent

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation [institutional and national] and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. Informed consent was obtained from all participants for being included in the study.