The role of self-esteem and emotion regulation in the associations between childhood trauma and mental health in adulthood: a moderated mediation model

BACKGROUND: High levels of childhood trauma (CT) have been observed in adults with mental health problems. Herein, we investigated whether self-esteem (SE) and emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal (CR) and expressive suppression (ES)) affect the association between CT and mental health in adulthood, including depression and anxiety symptoms. METHODS: We performed a cross-sectional study of 6057 individuals (39.99% women, median age = 34 y), recruited across China via the internet, who completed the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), Self-esteem Scale (SES), and Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ). Multivariate linear regression analysis and bias-corrected percentile bootstrap methodologies were used to assess the mediating effect of SE, and hierarchical regression analysis and subgroup approach were performed to examine the moderating effects of emotion regulation strategies. RESULTS: After controlling for age and sex, we found that (1) SE mediated the associations between CT and depression symptoms in adulthood (indirect effect = 0.05, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.04–0.05, 36.2% mediated), and CT and anxiety symptoms in adulthood (indirect effect = 0.03, 95% CI: 0.03–0.04, 32.0% mediated); (2) CR moderated the association between CT and SE; and (3) ES moderated the association between of CT and mental health in adulthood via SE, and such that both the CT-SE and SE-mental health pathways were stronger when ES is high rather than low, resulting the indirect effect was stronger for high ES than for low ES. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggested that SE plays a partially mediating role in the association between CT and mental health in adulthood. Furthermore, ES aggravated the negative effect of CT on mental health in adulthood via SE. Interventions such as emotional expression training may help reduce the detrimental effects of CT on mental health. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The study was registered on http://www.chictr.org.cn/index.aspx and the registration number was ChiCTR2200059155. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12888-023-04719-7.