Associations between childhood maltreatment and personality traits in individuals with and without depression: a CTQ-based assessment

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Abstract

Background

Prior research has established a correlation between childhood maltreatment (CM) and personality traits. The current understanding regarding the potential variability in the relationship between CM and its impact on personality dimensions among those with major depressive disorder (MDD) and healthy controls (HCs) remains elusive.

Aims

This study analyzes the association between CM and personality traits in the MDD and HC groups.

Methods

The study recruited 188 individuals with MDD and 132 HC. The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) was used to assess CM, and the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF) was used to assess personality traits. We used a 2*2 analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) of the diagnosis and CM on 16PF, and hierarchical regression explored the association between specific types of CM and 16PF in both groups.

Results

The 2*2 ANCOVA results indicated significant interaction effects between CM and diagnosis on personality traits, with CM’s impact notably different between groups. In the MDD group, sexual abuse (SA) independently predicted the subscale Q1 (Openness to Change), related to the Big Five’s openness. In the HC group, emotional abuse (EA) predicted the subscales C (emotional stability), O (apprehension), and Q4(tension), linked to Big Five’s neuroticism.

Conclusion

The findings highlight the impact of early adversity on personality development, informing psychology and guiding tailored therapy development.

Related collections

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Author and article information

Contributors

Bangshan Liu: bangshan.liu@csu.edu.cn

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): BMC Psychol

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): BMC Psychol

Title: BMC Psychology

Publisher: BioMed Central (London )

ISSN (Electronic): 2050-7283

Publication date (Electronic): 11 February 2025

Publication date PMC-release: 11 February 2025

Publication date Collection: 2025

Volume: 13

Electronic Location Identifier: 115

Affiliations

[1 ]Department of Psychiatry, National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders, and National Center for Mental Disorders, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, ( https://ror.org/053v2gh09) Changsha, 410011 Hunan China

[2 ]Hunan Key Laboratory of Psychiatry and Mental Health, Mental Health Institute of Central South University, National Technology Institute on Mental Disorders, Hunan Technology Institute of Psychiatry, Hunan Medical Center for Mental Health, ( https://ror.org/053v2gh09) Changsha, 410011 Hunan China

[3 ]Department of Psychiatry, Zhumadian Psychiatric Hospital, Zhumadian, China

Article

Publisher ID: 2431

DOI: 10.1186/s40359-025-02431-7

PMC ID: 11817623

PubMed ID: 39934922

SO-VID: e9fc2395-10ca-4bce-8678-eb74fa0d5fe6

License:

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

History

Date received : 8 October 2024

Date accepted : 29 January 2025

Funding

Funded by: the National Natural Science Foundation of China

Award ID: 81601180

Award ID: 81171286

Funded by: The Science and Technology Innovation Program of Hunan Province

Award ID: 2023RC3083

Funded by: the Scientific Research Launch Project for new employees of the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University

Funded by: FundRef http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100012166, National Key Research and Development Program of China;

Award ID: 2019YFA0706200

Funded by: the STI2030-Major Projects

Award ID: 2021ZD0202000

Funded by: the National Science and Technologic Program of China

Award ID: 2015BAI13B02

Funded by: the Defense Innovative Special Region Program

Award ID: 17-163-17-XZ-004-005-01

Custom metadata

Keywords: childhood maltreatment,personality traits,major depressive disorder,emotional abuse,sexual abuse

Data availability:

Keywords: childhood maltreatment, personality traits, major depressive disorder, emotional abuse, sexual abuse