Childhood trauma, emotion regulation, peer attachment, and family functioning: A longitudinal network analysis

Abstract

Childhood trauma is a significant contributor to the heightened susceptibility to psychiatric disorders. This study aims to clarify the impact of childhood maltreatment on adolescents by investigating the longitudinal associations between childhood trauma, emotion regulation, peer interactions, and family functioning. The study involved a sample of 1280 students (mean age = 14.78, SD = 1.58) enrolled in two high schools in Fujian Province, including 749 females and 531 males. Participants completed two rounds of questionnaires with a six-month interval between administrations. A directed network was constructed to explore the longitudinal connections. The findings revealed that emotional abuse exhibited the strongest predictive influence, and family functioning emerged as the most influential bridge node within the network. This means that the activation of emotional abuse may subsequently trigger the activation of other risk factors in the network, and family functioning is the most susceptible in the present network. In future research, much more work is needed to test the network replicability and investigate the specific differences between male and female networks.