ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Psychology for Clinical Settings
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1587042
This article is part of the Research TopicBetween Emotional Regulation and Dysregulation: Perspectives, Interventions, Tools and Technologies for Psychological Well-BeingView all 12 articles
The Impact of different Adverse Childhood Experiences on the Dimensions of Emotional Dysregulation in Adults with Major Depression.
Provisionally accepted
Paula Dagnino1*
Cecilia Cordeu2
Eduardo Franco-Chalco3
Sergio Gloger4Martin Duisallant1Joaquín Mizon1
Loreto Romero1- 1San Sebastián University, Santiago, Chile
- 2Universidad Bernardo O'Higgins, Santiago, Metropolitan Region, Chile
- 3Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, Lima, Peru
- 4Universidad de chile, Santiago, Chile
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Adverse childhood experiences adversely affect the development of emotional regulation, yet their differential impact on discrete dysregulation dimensions in major depressive disorder remains underexamined. This study examines the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and emotional dysregulation, as well as its five dimensions. Method: A total of 120 out-patients meeting the BDI-II cutoff for MDD completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-SF (CTQ-SF) and the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS). We first tested sex differences on DERS subscales (none emerged), then ran a multivariate multiple regression using Pillai's trace to assess the joint effects of the five CTQ-SF dimensions on the five DERS dimensions. Six follow-up linear regressions predicted each DERS subscale and the total DERS score from the CTQ-SF dimensions. Results: Physical abuse was the only CTQ dimension with a significant multivariate effect. In univariate models, emotional abuse predicted higher overall dysregulation and increased emotional dyscontrol, everyday interference, and emotional inattention, whereas greater physical abuse was associated with reduced everyday interference. Discussion: Emotional abuse appears to be the principal driver of both global and facet-specific emotion-regulation difficulties in adults with MDD, suggesting that interventions emphasizing impulse control, emotion awareness, and reduction of functional interference may be particularly beneficial for this subgroup. Limitations: The cross-sectional, selfreport design precludes causal inferences and may be subject to recall bias; future work should employ longitudinal, multimethod approaches to elucidate mechanisms and resilience factors.
Keywords: Depression, childhood trauma, Adverse childhood experiences, emotional dysregulation, Adult patients
Received: 03 Mar 2025; Accepted: 26 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Dagnino, Cordeu, Franco-Chalco, Gloger, Duisallant, Mizon and Romero. 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: Paula Dagnino, San Sebastián University, Santiago, Chile
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