Childhood maltreatment, emotion regulation strategies and depressive symptoms during spousal bereavement

Abstract

Background: Childhood maltreatment increases the risk of depression, especially after experiencing a stressful life event, such as bereavement. Employing emotion regulation strategies can mitigate the impact childhood maltreatment has on depression later in life following the loss of a spouse.

Objective: We evaluated how cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression moderated the impact of childhood maltreatment and depressive symptoms following spousal bereavement.

Participants and setting: We examined 130 bereaved individuals 3 months after the death of a spouse, 4 months after the death of a spouse, and 6 months after the death of a spouse.

Methods: We utilized a mixed model approach to test the interaction between childhood maltreatment and cognitive reappraisal and between childhood maltreatment and expressive suppression to predict depressive symptoms across 3 time points.

Results: Cognitive reappraisal moderated the relationship between childhood maltreatment and depressive symptoms (b = - 0.17,p = .003); expressive suppression did not (b = 0.06,p = .452). Participants who used less cognitive reappraisal had a positive relationship between childhood maltreatment and depressive symptoms (b = 3.27,p < .001);participants who used more cognitive reappraisal did not (b = 1.09,p = .065).

Conclusions: Childhood maltreatment interacted with cognitive reappraisal, but not expressive suppression, to predict depressive symptoms following spousal bereavement. This study reveals how emotion regulation strategies can be utilized as a tool to buffer the impact of childhood maltreatment on mental health following a stressor later in life, which can serve as a target for future interventions for individuals experiencing a stressful life event.

Keywords: Bereavement; Childhood maltreatment; Depression; Emotion regulation; Stress.