Childhood Emotional Maltreatment and Subsequent Affective Symptoms Among Chinese Male Drug Users: The Roles of Impulsivity and Psychological Resilience

Clinical Impact Statement Childhood emotional maltreatment poses a threat to later affective well-being through contributing to intrapersonal vulnerabilities (e.g., impulsivity) and compromising intrapersonal strengths (e.g., psychological resilience). Victimization related to childhood emotional abuse is more relevant to the later formation of an impulsive style, whereas experiences of childhood emotional neglect are more likely to disrupt the development of one's stress-coping abilities. Such findings contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the affective consequences of childhood emotional abuse versus childhood emotional neglect and the implicated mechanisms. Drug use treatments should attend to affective sequelae of childhood emotional maltreatment. Interventions targeted at modification of impulsivity and facilitation of psychological resilience may be effective in diminishing such consequences. Objective: Childhood emotional maltreatment (CEM) has been widely linked to later affective symptoms. What still remains inadequately understood are the potential nuanced differences in the consequences of childhood emotional abuse (CEM-A) versus childhood emotional neglect (CEM-N) and the implicated mechanisms. Research with non-Western, clinical samples also remains scarce. Thus, we examined the associations of CEM-A and CEM-N with later affective symptoms among Chinese male drug users and tested impulsivity and psychological resilience as potential mediators and moderators. Method: Structural equation modeling analyses were conducted with survey data obtained from 239 Chinese male adult drug users who were in a rehabilitation center. Results: The mediating rather than the moderating hypotheses were supported. CEM-A was found to be positively associated with subsequent depressive and anxious symptoms through a positive association with impulsivity. In contrast, CEM-N was positively associated only with subsequent depressive symptoms via a negative association with psychological resilience. In addition, CEM-A was also found to be directly associated with later depressive and anxious symptoms. Conclusions: CEM may pose a threat to later affective well-being partly through contributing to intrapersonal vulnerabilities as well as compromising intrapersonal strengths. Differentiating CEM-A and CEM-N appears to be critical for revealing the understudied specificity and nuance that may be inherently within such effects. Drug use treatment services should sensitively attend to the affective sequelae of CEM. Interventions targeted at the modification of impulsivity and the facilitation of psychological resilience may be effective in diminishing the affective consequences of CEM among drug users.