Emotion Regulation Difficulties Account for the Associations Between Childhood Maltreatment and Perceived Stress in Young Adulthood

Abstract

Childhood exposure to traumatic events can have enduring negative effects, particularly on stress perception and overall well-being. Emotion dysregulation, which refers to difficulties in managing emotional responses, is frequently observed among individuals with a history of interpersonal trauma and has been proposed as a construct linking childhood maltreatment to heightened stress in adulthood. Using an Associational Variable Analysis (AVA), this study examined whether emotion regulation difficulties accounted for shared variance between childhood maltreatment and perceived stress in adulthood. A sample of 351 university students completed self-report assessments of childhood maltreatment (CTQ), emotion regulation difficulties (DERS), and perceived stress (PSS-10). At the total-score level, emotion regulation difficulties significantly accounted for the association between emotional neglect and perceived stress, whereas emotional abuse and sexual abuse maintained direct associations with stress. At the subscale level, specific emotion regulation difficulties accounted for the associations of emotional abuse and emotional neglect with both perceived helplessness and perceived self-efficacy, with limited access to emotion regulation strategies and difficulties engaging in goal-directed behavior emerging as the most relevant regulatory dimensions. These findings highlight emotion regulation difficulties as an important construct linking childhood emotional maltreatment with perceived stress in adulthood, while emphasizing the need for longitudinal designs before causal conclusions can be drawn.