Abstract

Emotional abuse and emotional neglect are subtypes of psychological maltreatment, which are qualitatively different ways of detrimental interactions between caregiver and child, suggesting that they have different effects on later emotional development and depressive symptoms. Emotional abuse consisting of acts of commission was associated with depressed mood, whereas emotional neglect consisting of acts of omission was associated with depressed mood and anhedonic depression. Therefore, this study investigated the distinct mediating effect of emotion regulation in the relationship between emotional abuse and emotional neglect and depressive symptoms(depressed mood and anhedonic depression). Three hundred and twenty-three college students completed the measures of childhood maltreatment, childhood trauma, anhedonic depression, depressed mood, negative affective intensity, emotional clarity, and adaptive and maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies. The results of Structural Equation Modeling(SEM) showed that negative affective intensity and maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies sequentially mediated the relationship between emotional abuse and depressed mood. Also negative affective intensity and maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies simply mediated the relationship between emotional abuse and depressed mood, respectively. Whereas low level of emotional clarity and lack of adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies simply mediated the relationship between emotional neglect and anhedonic depression, respectively. And low level of emotional clarity mediated the relationship between emotional neglect and depressed mood. These results suggest that the distinct emotion regulation might mediate the relationship between childhood emotional abuse and emotional neglect and depressed mood and anhedonic depression. Finally, the implications and limitations of this study were discussed.