The fear of missing out can be negatively impacted by childhood psychological maltreatment. However, previous studies have yet to investigate the underlying mechanisms through which childhood psychological maltreatment influences fear of missing out in adulthood. Drawing from self-determination theory, this paper proposed a hypothesis stating that childhood psychological maltreatment causes a deficiency in basic psychological needs, which in turn results in fear of missing out during adulthood (Hypothesis 1). Especially for individuals with high conscientiousness, because they have higher demands on themselves, they raise the "threshold" for satisfying basic psychological needs, making it harder for them to meet needs. The nexus of childhood psychological maltreatment and basic psychological needs could be moderated by conscientiousness (Hypothesis 2). The study recruited college students as participants through offline advertising posters. The combined count of valid participants enrolled was 500. Among them, there were 223 males (M_age = 20.076, SD_age = 0.999) and 277 females (M_age = 20.181, SD_age = 1.217). Findings of the study reveals childhood psychological maltreatment had a robust tied with fear of missing out and basic psychological needs functioned as an incomplete intermediary in the connection (β = 0.369, SE = 0.041, p < 0.001). The indirect effect was responsible for 59.7% of the total effect observed. Further moderated mediation analyses indicate that conscientiousness moderates the nexus of childhood psychological maltreatment and basic psychological needs, with the nexus being amplified in the context of high conscientiousness adults (β = -0.270, SE = 0.041, p < 0.001). The findings suggest a critical mechanism explaining the bond between childhood psychological maltreatment and fear of missing out is the decreased contentment for basic psychological needs; when basic psychological needs is influenced by childhood psychological maltreatment, conscientiousness moderates its effect. These findings imply that educators and primary caregivers should not only emphasize the significance of satisfying basic psychological needs for optimal individual psychological growth, but also acknowledge the potential detrimental effects of conscientiousness—a trait generally viewed as desirable—on individual psychological well-being.

害怕错过可能会受到童年心理虐待的负面影响。然而，之前的研究尚未调查儿童心理虐待影响成年后害怕错过的潜在机制。借鉴自决理论，本文提出了一个假设，即儿童时期的心理虐待导致基本心理需求的缺乏，进而导致成年后害怕错过（假设1 ）). 尤其是责任心高的人，由于对自己的要求更高，他们提高了满足基本心理需求的“门槛”，使他们更难满足需求。儿童心理虐待和基本心理需求之间的联系可以通过尽责性来调节（假设 2）。该研究通过线下广告海报招募大学生作为参与者。合计有效报名人数为500人，其中男性223人（M_年龄 =20.076，SD_年龄 =0.999），女性277人（M_年龄 =20.181，SD_年龄） = 1.217）。研究结果表明，儿童期心理虐待与害怕错过有很强的联系，而基本的心理需求在这种联系中起着不完全的中介作用（β  = 0.369，SE  = 0.041，p  < 0.001）。间接影响占观察到的总影响的 59.7%。进一步的调节中介分析表明，尽责性缓和了儿童心理虐待和基本心理需求的关系，这种关系在高度尽责性成年人的背景下被放大（β = -0.270  ，SE  = 0.041，p < 0.001)。研究结果表明，解释儿童心理虐待与害怕错过之间联系的一个关键机制是对基本心理需求的满足感下降；当基本心理需求受到童年心理虐待的影响时，尽责性会降低其影响。这些发现表明，教育工作者和主要照顾者不仅应该强调满足基本心理需求对于最佳个人心理成长的重要性，还应该承认尽责性——一种通常被视为可取的特质——对个人心理健康的潜在不利影响。