Child Abuse and Perceived Stress in College Students: The Mediating Role of Emotion Regulation

Kailey L. Basham*, Rebekah L. Damitz, Nicholas A. Turiano, Ph.D.
Department of Psychology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26505

Presentation Category: Social & Behavioral Sciences (Poster presentation)

Student’s Major: Psychology & Criminology

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) refer to the physical, emotional and sexual maltreatment children may experience. ACEs have been shown in multiple studies to be correlated with maladaptive outcomes across childhood and adulthood, including increased stress, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. The current study sought to build on prior work by examining whether sub-optimal emotion regulation skills mediated the association between ACEs and perceived stress in college students at West Virginia University. We hypothesized that those experiencing more adversity would utilize more suppression and less reappraisal techniques to deal with emotions, ultimately leading to higher levels of perceived stress. The sample for the current study consisted of 769 (Mage = 18; 50% female) incoming students from the College Student Transition Study. ACEs were quantified by 15 questions assessing the presence of emotional, physical and sexual adversities during childhood. Emotion regulation was measured via the emotion regulation questionnaire utilizing mean scores for emotional suppression and reappraisal (Gross & John, 2003). Perceived stress was indexed by the perceived stress scale (Cohen, Kamarck & Mermelstein, 1983). Baseline analyses confirmed that adverse childhood experiences were significantly correlated with both suppression (r = 0.11; p < .05) and reappraisal (r = -0.15; p < .05) and perceived stress (r = 0.38; p < .05). Suppression (r = 0.15; p < .05) and reappraisal (r = -0.40; p < .05) were also significantly correlated with perceived stress. Initial analyses find support for a possible mechanistic role of adversity being associated with stress levels via emotional regulation strategies.

Funding: Federal Work Study, National Institute of General Medical Sciences

Program/mechanism supporting research/creative efforts: WVU's Research Apprenticeship Program (RAP) & accompanying HONR 297-level course