Association between childhood trauma and depression: A moderated mediation analysis among normative Chinese college students

Background: Childhood trauma is a critical risk factor for depression. Many studies have investigated the pathway between childhood trauma and depression, especially the mediating or moderating effects of neuroticism or resilience, but the results were inconsistent and there was no full model of these interactive factors. In addition, high prevalence of depression existed in normative college students, and few studies focused on their pathway between childhood trauma and depressive scores. Therefore, this study intended to examine the relationships among childhood trauma, resilience, neuroticism and depressive scores in normative college students. Methods: Normative college students (n = 404) aged 18-22 years were recruited as participants from universities in Guangzhou in 2019. The participants were asked to complete four self-report questionnaires, including the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form (CTQ-SF), Conner-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD RISC), NEO-Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) and the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II). Results: Results revealed that the effect of childhood trauma on depressive scores in normative college students was mediated by neuroticism. In addition, resilience moderated the association between childhood trauma and neuroticism. Conclusions: This study helps to elucidate the mechanism that underlined the pathway between childhood trauma and depressive scores in normative college students. These findings may give indications of developing measures to strengthen resilience and lower neuroticism in normative college students with childhood traumatic experiences.