Childhood trauma, psychache and depression: A Moderated Mediation Model

Abstract

Abstract Background: Childhood trauma is a potential threat to depression and can have a lifelong impact on the mental health of university students. Few studies have investigated the mediating and moderating variables that influence this relationship. Our study aimed to construct a moderated mediation model to explore the relationship between childhood trauma, psychache, ambivalence over emotional expression, physical activity, and depression in university students. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in three universities in Shandong, Liaoning, and Guizhou in China, recruiting 476 university students using self-report questionnaires. The moderated mediation model was examined using the SPSS PROCESS model 21. Results: 1) Childhood trauma has a significant and positively associated with depression. 2) Psychache partially mediates the relationship between childhood trauma and depression in university students. 3) The overall indirect effect of the ambivalence over emotional expression, psychache, and physical activity in the mechanisms underlying childhood trauma and depression was 0.287, accounting for 61.59% of the total effect. 4) High ambivalence over emotional positively moderates the pathway between childhood trauma and psychache, whereas physical activity level negatively moderates the pathway between psychache and depression. Conclusions: This study investigated the relationship between childhood trauma, ambivalence over emotional expression, psychache, physical activity, and depression in university students. Future interventions should focus on developing good emotional expression among university students, increasing opportunities for physical activity, and reducing psychache to reduce depression.