Examination of the Indirect Effect of Childhood Emotional Trauma on Internalizing Symptoms through Distress Intolerance

Objectives: Extant studies document a prospective link between early childhood trauma and internalizing symptoms, such as anxiety and depression. Less is known regarding specific cognitive-affective mechanisms. The current study sought to examine distress intolerance (DI) as a mechanism that may explain the relation between early childhood emotional abuse and internalizing symptoms. Participants and methods: Participants (N = 230; 54.3% women; mean age = 19.72, SD = 2.28) completed multiple self-report indices of early childhood emotional abuse, DI, and internalizing symptom indices. Using structural equation modeling, a series of mediation models was run to examine the indirect effect of childhood emotional abuse on latent and specific internalizing symptom indices through a latent index of subjective DI. N mean age SD Results: Childhood emotional abuse was significantly associated with internalizing symptoms through DI (effect size range = 0.083-0.227, medium to large). Conclusions: The results provide preliminary evidence for DI as a mechanism of interest in the relation between early childhood emotional abuse and internalizing symptoms.