Childhood adversity is a major risk factor for multiple forms of psychopathology, and recent efforts have focused on understanding the underlying psychological mechanisms. One outstanding candidate is emotion regulation, which has been associated with both childhood adversity, and psychopathology. Based on the available evidence, the present meta-analysis set out to investigate the mechanistic involvement of emotion regulation in the relation between childhood adversity and psychopathology. Systematic searches in three databases (PubMed; PsycINFO; Web of Science) identified 215 eligible studies. Using meta-analytic structural equation modeling, we fitted a partial mediation model to the available data across studies, in which childhood adversity was related to psychopathology both directly and through emotion regulation. Multiple emotion regulation dimensions were analyzed, including emotion regulation difficulties and the habitual use of rumination, distraction, reappraisal, and suppression. Measures of psychopathology included a wide range of internalizing and externalizing symptoms in both clinical and non-clinical samples. The results indicated that childhood adversity was positively associated with emotion regulation difficulties, as well as with the habitual use of rumination and suppression. In turn, these measures of emotion regulation were positively associated with psychopathology. Habitual reappraisal use showed negative relations with both childhood adversity and psychopathology. All these emotion regulation measures were supported as mediators in the relation between childhood adversity and psychopathology. In contrast, distraction was not related to childhood adversity or psychopathology, and its mediator role was not supported. These results suggest that altered emotion regulation is a consistent marker of childhood adversity and contributes to risk of psychopathology.

童年逆境是多种形式的精神病理学的主要风险因素，最近的努力集中在了解潜在的心理机制上。一个突出的候选者是情绪调节，它与童年逆境和精神病理学有关。根据现有证据，本荟萃分析着手调查情绪调节在儿童逆境与精神病理学之间关系中的机制参与。在三个数据库（PubMed；PsycINFO；Web of Science）中进行系统搜索，确定了 215 项符合条件的研究。使用元分析结构方程模型，我们将部分中介模型拟合到跨研究的可用数据中，其中童年逆境与精神病理学直接相关并通过情绪调节相关。分析了多个情绪调节维度，包括情绪调节困难和习惯性使用沉思、分心、重新评价和抑制。精神病理学的测量包括临床和非临床样本中广泛的内化和外化症状。结果表明，童年逆境与情绪调节困难以及反刍和压抑的习惯性使用呈正相关。反过来，这些情绪调节措施与精神病理学呈正相关。习惯性的重新评估使用显示出与童年逆境和精神病理学的负面关系。所有这些情绪调节措施都被支持作为儿童逆境与精神病理学之间关系的中介。相比之下，分心与童年逆境或精神病理学无关，其中介作用不受支持。这些结果表明，情绪调节的改变是童年逆境的一致标志，并有助于增加精神病理学的风险。