The mediating effects of childhood neglect on the association between schizotypal and autistic personality traits and depression in a non-clinical sample

BMC Psychiatry

Research Article

Jingbo Gong¹  Jianbo Liu²  Xuerong Luo²  Bo Xiao²  Yanmei Shen²  Yuqiong He²  Guanghui Nie³ 

[1] Department of Applied Psychology, Traditional Chinese Medicine University of Hunan, 410208, Changsha, China;Mental Health Institute of The Second Xiangya Hospital and Key Laboratory of Psychiatry and Mental Health of Hunan Province, The Central South University, 410000, Changsha, China;School of Public Health, Guangxi Medical University, 530000, Nanning, China;

关键词: APT;    SPT;    Neglect;    Depression;    Mediating factor;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12888-017-1510-0

 received in 2016-11-24, accepted in 2017-10-15,  发布年份 2017

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundAutistic personality traits (APT) and schizotypal personality traits (SPT) are associated with depression. However, mediating factors within these relationships have not yet been explored. Thus, the focus of the current study was to examine the effects of childhood neglect on the relationship between APT/SPT and depression.MethodsThis cross-sectional study was conducted on first-year students (N = 2469) at Hunan University of Chinese Medicine and Hengyang Normal College (Changsha, China). Participants completed surveys on APT, SPT, childhood neglect, abuse and depression.ResultsThrough correlational analyses, APT and SPT traits were positively correlated with childhood neglect and depression (p < 0.05). In a hierarchical regression analysis, among types of childhood maltreatment, emotional neglect (β = 0.112, p < 0.001) and physical neglect (β = 0.105, p < 0.001) were the strongest predictors of depression. Childhood neglect did not account for the relationships between APT/SPT and depression. Further analysis found that childhood neglect mediated the relationship between SPT and depression but not APT and depression.ConclusionsAmong types of childhood maltreatment, neglect was the strongest predicting factor for depression. Neglect did not account for the relationship between APT/SPT and depression but was a strong mediating factor between SPT and depression.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s). 2017