ABSTRACT

Adults who were maltreated in childhood are at increased risk for depression, social anxiety, and loneliness in adulthood and spirituality may be a protective factor. The current study will extend research by examining spirituality as a moderator of childhood maltreatment severity and adult depressive symptoms, social anxiety symptoms, and loneliness. Further, men and women were examined separately to discern if spirituality has similar or dissimilar effects across gender. Data are from the biomarker study within the study of Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS) refresher cohort. The study was cross-sectional and included 853 adults (52.2% female). Using hierarchical regression, we found that spirituality moderated the relationship between women’s reports of maltreatment severity and depression, social anxiety, and loneliness. Contrastingly, spirituality did not moderate the relationship between childhood maltreatment and any of the mental health outcomes in men; however, spirituality was directly associated with lower levels of loneliness for men. Spirituality was associated with fewer symptoms of depression and social anxiety as well as less loneliness in women who were maltreated in childhood and could be a source of resilience.

摘要

在童年时期受到虐待的成年人在成年期患抑郁症、社交焦虑和孤独感的风险增加，而灵性可能是一个保护因素。目前的研究将通过检查灵性作为儿童虐待严重程度和成人抑郁症状、社交焦虑症状和孤独感的调节因素来扩展研究。此外，男性和女性被分开检查，以辨别灵性是否对性别有相似或不同的影响。数据来自美国中年发展研究 (MIDUS) 进修队列中的生物标志物研究。该研究是横断面的，包括 853 名成年人（52.2% 女性）。使用层次回归，我们发现灵性调节了女性对虐待严重程度的报告与抑郁、社交焦虑和孤独感之间的关系。相比之下，灵性并没有缓和童年虐待与男性任何心理健康结果之间的关系；然而，灵性与男性较低的孤独感直接相关。灵性与较少的抑郁和社交焦虑症状以及较少的孤独感有关，这些女性在童年时期受到虐待，可能是复原力的来源。