Childhood maltreatment, depressive implicit associations and depression symptoms in young adulthood

ABSTRACT

Childhood maltreatment (CM) has been associated with depression symptoms in adulthood; however, the links between CM and other depression-related constructs are insufficiently understood. This study tested whether CM was associated with depression symptoms as well as depressive implicit associations (IA). Young adults (N = 208; mean age = 19.7) completed self-report measures of CM and depression symptoms, and a computer-based behavioral task assessing depressive IA. CM was associated with depressive IA; furthermore, CM was related to depression symptoms above and beyond depressive IA. Both depression symptoms and depressive IA may uniquely contribute to the development of depression disorder in CM-exposed individuals.

KEYWORDS:

• Childhood maltreatment
• depressive implicit associations
• depression brief implicit association test
• depression symptoms
• young adulthood

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth (VFHY8521238; Shin). The Foundation had no role in the study design, collection, analysis, or interpretation of the data, manuscript development, and the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

Data Availability Statement

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to confidentiality reasons but are available from Sunny H. Shin on reasonable request.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth [VFHY8521238].