Linking childhood emotional abuse and adult depressive symptoms: The role of mentalizing incapacity.

CONCLUSIONS: This study provided preliminary evidence for hypermentalizing and hypomentalizing as mechanisms whereby early emotional abuse can lead to later depression. A normal to high level of mentalizing capacity might serve as a protective factor to suspend the pathway from childhood maltreatment to subsequent depression and become a promising target in psychological treatments. As cross-sectional data does not allow conclusions to be drawn on causal relationships, longitudinal data in a more representative sample is needed to capture relevant context and further examine our findings. PMID: 31812024 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Child Abuse and Neglect - Category: Child Development Authors: Tags: Child Abuse Negl Source Type: research