Cognitive Regulation of Emotions as A Mediating Variable Between Childhood Trauma and Depressive Symptoms in Adolescents

Abstract

The current study aimed to analyze the path of causal relationships between childhood trauma, cognitive emotion regulation strategies, and depression symptoms in adolescents, to reveal the mediating role of cognitive emotion regulation strategies in the relationship between childhood trauma and depression symptoms among participants from adolescents (467), (281) females 60.2%, and (186) males 39.8%, with an average age of (19.5) and a standard deviation of (3.1). tools applied to them (the cognitive emotion regulation strategies scale, childhood trauma, and the psychological depression symptoms scale). Using the statistical program SPSS and AMOS. The data were analyzed using the structural modeling equation, The results showed a statistically significant positive correlation at the level of significance (0.01) between childhood trauma and symptoms of psychological depression. A mediating effect of emotion regulation strategies was also found in the relationship between childhood trauma and depressive symptoms among adolescent study participants, as cognitive emotion regulation strategies mitigated the effect of childhood trauma on depressive symptoms among adolescents. The results were discussed in light of previous studies and theoretical frameworks, and it was recommended that training and preventive programs be developed based on improving cognitive emotion regulation among adolescents to protect them from depressive symptoms resulting from the possibility of their exposure to psychological trauma in childhood.