Emotion Regulation Difficulties Account for the Associations Between Childhood Maltreatment and Perceived Stress in Young Adulthood
- 1Department of Psychology, Universität Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
- 2Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, Psychosomatics and Medical Psychology, Division of Psychiatry I, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria
Abstract
Childhood exposure to traumatic events can have enduring negative effects, particularly on stress perception and overall well-being. Emotion dysregulation, which refers to difficulties in managing emotional responses, is frequently observed among individuals with a history of interpersonal trauma and has been proposed as a construct linking childhood maltreatment to heightened stress in adulthood. Using an Associational Variable Analysis (AVA), this study examined whether emotion regulation difficulties accounted for shared variance between childhood maltreatment and perceived stress in adulthood. A sample of 351 university students completed self-report assessments of childhood maltreatment (CTQ), emotion regulation difficulties (DERS), and perceived stress (PSS-10). At the total-score level, emotion regulation difficulties significantly accounted for the association between emotional neglect and perceived stress, whereas emotional abuse and sexual abuse maintained direct associations with stress. At the subscale level, specific emotion regulation difficulties accounted for the associations of emotional abuse and emotional neglect with both perceived helplessness and perceived self-efficacy, with limited access to emotion regulation strategies and difficulties engaging in goal-directed behavior emerging as the most relevant regulatory dimensions. These findings highlight emotion regulation difficulties as an important construct linking childhood emotional maltreatment with perceived stress in adulthood, while emphasizing the need for longitudinal designs before causal conclusions can be drawn.
Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s40653-026-00946-8.
Related
- Associations Between Childbirth-Related Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms and Mother–Infant Bonding Difficulties: The Role of Maternal Stress and Perceived Infant Regulatory Difficulties
- Longitudinal associations between childhood maltreatment and suicidal ideation in youth: the roles of complex posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and interpersonal factors
- Associations of sleep disturbance and emotion regulation with perceived workplace safety and fatigue among male firefighters with prior occupational accidents : A cross-sectional study
- The Relationship Between Childhood Maltreatment and Adolescent Psychological Distress: A Latent Transition Analysis
- The Relationship Between Childhood Maltreatment and Emotion Recognition in Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
BibTeX
@article{lapomarda2026emotion,
title = {{Emotion Regulation Difficulties Account for the Associations Between Childhood Maltreatment and Perceived Stress in Young Adulthood}},
author = {Gaia Lapomarda and Beatrice Frajo-Apor and Gerald Autengruber and Alex Hofer and Carmen Morawetz},
journal = {Journal of Child \& Adolescent Trauma},
year = {2026},
month = jul,
doi = {10.1007/s40653-026-00946-8},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1007/s40653-026-00946-8},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Emotion Regulation Difficulties Account for the Associations Between Childhood Maltreatment and Perceived Stress in Young Adulthood
AU - Gaia Lapomarda
AU - Beatrice Frajo-Apor
AU - Gerald Autengruber
AU - Alex Hofer
AU - Carmen Morawetz
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/07/21
JO - Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma
DO - 10.1007/s40653-026-00946-8
UR - https://doi.org/10.1007/s40653-026-00946-8
AB - Childhood exposure to traumatic events can have enduring negative effects, particularly on stress perception and overall well-being. Emotion dysregulation, which refers to difficulties in managing emotional responses, is frequently observed among individuals with a history of interpersonal trauma and has been proposed as a construct linking childhood maltreatment to heightened stress in adulthood. Using an Associational Variable Analysis (AVA), this study examined whether emotion regulation difficulties accounted for shared variance between childhood maltreatment and perceived stress in adulthood. A sample of 351 university students completed self-report assessments of childhood maltreatment (CTQ), emotion regulation difficulties (DERS), and perceived stress (PSS-10). At the total-score level, emotion regulation difficulties significantly accounted for the association between emotional neglect and perceived stress, whereas emotional abuse and sexual abuse maintained direct associations with stress. At the subscale level, specific emotion regulation difficulties accounted for the associations of emotional abuse and emotional neglect with both perceived helplessness and perceived self-efficacy, with limited access to emotion regulation strategies and difficulties engaging in goal-directed behavior emerging as the most relevant regulatory dimensions. These findings highlight emotion regulation difficulties as an important construct linking childhood emotional maltreatment with perceived stress in adulthood, while emphasizing the need for longitudinal designs before causal conclusions can be drawn. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s40653-026-00946-8.
SN - 1936-1521
SN - 1936-153X
ER -