Childhood Trauma Experience and Adult Depression: The Moderating Effect of Resilience

Abstract

This study conducted multiple logistic regression analysis on 2,000 adults who participated in the "Life Events and Trauma Experience Survey" of Chae et al. (2021) to understand the effect of trauma experiences on depression in adulthood and to verify the moderating effect of resilience in the relationship between trauma experiences and depression. Trauma in childhood, an independent variable, was measured from two aspects: whether they experienced it and the extent to which they experienced it (unexperienced group, 1 to 3 experiences group, 4 or more experiences group). In addition to trauma and resilience, socioeconomic characteristics and health status, which can affect depression, were controlled for in the analysis. The findings revealed that the group who experienced trauma in childhood had a higher risk of depression in adulthood compared to the group who did not experience trauma. It was also found that the accumulation of trauma experiences increased the risk of depression. In addition, resilience was found to have a moderating effect on the impact of past trauma experiences on depression in adulthood. However, when trauma experience exceeded a certain level, the moderating effect of resilience became insignificant. Therefore, while efforts to increase resilience are important for managing depression in adulthood, priority should be given to approaches that prevent and protect children from exposure to trauma experiences.