ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Aging Psychiatry
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1553895
Social activity as a mediator between childhood adversity and depressive symptoms in middle-aged and older Chinese adults
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of the Fourth School of Clinical Medicine, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, China
- 2Huzhou Third Municipal Hospital, Affiliated Hospital of Huzhou University, Huzhou, China
- 3Affiliated Mental Health Center & Hangzhou Seventh People's Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
- 4Department of Psychiatry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
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Background: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with an increased risk of depressive symptoms (DS) in older adults. This study investigated the role of social activity in mediating the relationship between ACEs and DS among middle-aged and older Chinese adults. Methods: Data were derived from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). The discovery dataset included 10,164 participants from 2018, matched with life history data from 2014, while the replication dataset comprised 8,899 participants from 2020. DS was measured using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). Multiple linear regression and mediation analysis were conducted.Results: In the discovery dataset, ACEs were positively correlated with DS (r = 0.17, p < 0.001), while social activity was negatively correlated with both DS (r = -0.11, p < 0.001) and ACEs (r = -0.03, p = 0.01). Mediation analysis indicated that ACEs significantly predicted DS (estimate = 0.51, 95% CI 0.43 to 0.60), and social activity partially mediated this relationship (estimate = -0.01, bootstrap 95% CI -0.01 to -0.001), particularly among middle-aged adults (indirect effect estimate = -0.01, bootstrap 95% CI -0.01 to -0.001). Additionally, social activity notably mediated the relationship between childhood violence exposure and DS (estimate = -0.02, bootstrap 95% CI -0.04 to -0.003). These results were robustly validated through replication analysis, reinforcing the reliability of our conclusions.Conclusions: Social activity mediates the relationship between ACEs and DS, highlighting the importance of social engagement to reduce depression risk in this population.
Keywords: Adverse childhood experiences, social activity, depressive symptoms, Middle-aged and older adults, Chinese
Received: 31 Dec 2024; Accepted: 09 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wu, Ding, Jin, Zhang, Greenshaw and Liang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Andrew James Greenshaw, Department of Psychiatry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
Sugai Liang, Affiliated Mental Health Center & Hangzhou Seventh People's Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
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