Child abuse is associated with elevated risk for psychopathology. The current study examined the role of automatic emotion regulation as a potential mechanism linking child abuse with internalizing psychopathology. A sample of 237 youth aged 8–16 years and their caregivers participated. Child abuse severity was assessed by self-report questionnaires, and automatic emotion regulation was assessed using an emotional Stroop task designed to measure adaptation to emotional conflict. A similar task without emotional stimuli was also administered to evaluate whether abuse was uniquely associated with emotion regulation, but not cognitive control applied in a nonemotional context. Internalizing psychopathology was assessed concurrently and at a 2-year longitudinal follow-up. Child abuse severity was associated with lower emotional conflict adaptation but was unrelated to cognitive control. Specifically, the severity of emotional and physical abuse, but not sexual abuse, were associated with lower emotional conflict adaptation. Emotional conflict adaptation was not associated with internalizing psychopathology prospectively. These findings suggest that childhood emotional and physical abuse, in particular, may influence automatic forms of emotion regulation. Future work exploring the socioemotional consequences of altered automatic emotion regulation among youth exposed to child abuse is clearly needed.

虐待儿童与精神病理学风险升高有关。目前的研究探讨了自动情绪调节作为将儿童虐待与内化精神病理学联系起来的潜在机制的作用。237 名 8-16 岁青少年及其照顾者参与了调查。通过自我报告问卷评估儿童虐待的严重程度，并使用旨在衡量对情绪冲突的适应能力的情绪斯特鲁普任务来评估自动情绪调节。还进行了一项没有情绪刺激的类似任务，以评估虐待是否与情绪调节独特相关，但与非情绪背景下的认知控制无关。同时对内化精神病理学进行了评估，并进行了 2 年的纵向随访。虐待儿童的严重程度与较低的情绪冲突适应能力有关，但与认知控制无关。具体来说，情感和身体虐​​待的严重程度与较低的情绪冲突适应能力相关，但性虐待则不然。情绪冲突适应与前瞻性内化精神病理学无关。这些发现表明，儿童时期的情感和身体虐​​待尤其可能影响情绪调节的自动形式。未来的工作显然需要探索遭受虐待儿童的青少年自动情绪调节改变的社会情绪后果。