Abstract
This study aimed to explore the underlying mechanism of childhood psychological maltreatment and self-satisfaction through serial mediation involving self-critical rumination and self-compassion. The study employed a cross-sectional design with 528 participants (343 females, 185 males), including young adults and adults aged 18 to 59. The convenience sampling method was used, and to collect data, the participants completed the self-satisfaction scale, childhood trauma questionnaire, self-critical rumination, and self-compassion scale. Structural equation modeling results indicated that, controlling for age and gender effects, childhood psychological maltreatment was negatively correlated with self-satisfaction and self-compassion and positively correlated with self-critical rumination. The serial mediation analysis revealed that self-critical rumination explains a unique variance beyond the influence of self-compassion. Furthermore, even when controlling for the effects of self-critical rumination and self-compassion, childhood psychological maltreatment still directly affected self-satisfaction. The bootstrapping process revealed substantial relationships between childhood psychological maltreatment and self-satisfaction through self-critical rumination. An important result of this study indicated that childhood psychological maltreatment may impair individual’s subjective well-being even during adulthood. To enhance the self-satisfaction of these individuals, interventions should focus especially on decreasing self-critical rumination and increasing self-compassion. Public health professionals should make efforts to prevent children from experiencing psychological maltreatment, which can adversely impact their subjective well-being in adulthood. The study acknowledges its limitations, and suggestions for future research are highlighted in light of the existing literature.
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This study, which was supervised by Prof. Ayse Rezan Cecen, is partly from Zeliha Gümüş’s master’s thesis, and the same dataset used in this study for the analyses.
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Cecen, A.R., Gümüş, Z. The Underlying Mechanism for Childhood Psychological Maltreatment and Self-Satisfaction: The Serial Mediating Roles of Self-Critical Rumination and Self-Compassion. Int J Ment Health Addiction (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-023-01228-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-023-01228-2