Effects of childhood trauma on the symptom-level relation between depression, anxiety, stress, and problematic...

Childhood trauma experience is closely associated with depression, anxiety, stress, and problematic smartphone use (PSU). However, few studies have explored the complex symptom-level relations between these variables among people with and without trauma experiences, leaving a gap in treating and alleviating these mental disorders among individuals with childhood trauma.

The current study used a convenience sampling method and recruited 2708 participants who completed Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form (CTQ-SF), Depression Anxiety and Stress Scales (DASS-21), and Mobile Phone Addiction Tendency Scale (MPATS), dividing them into trauma (n = 1454, Mean _age = 19.67) and no-trauma (n = 1254, Mean _age = 19.57) groups according to the cut-off scores of CTQ-SF. Symptom network analysis and network comparison test were conducted to construct and compare the network models between trauma and no-trauma groups.

The findings indicate that the trauma group and females exhibit greater average levels of DASS-21 and PSU symptoms compared to the no-trauma group and males, respectively. Additionally, the edge between "Stress" and "Anxiety" is the strongest across trauma and no-trauma groups. "Social comfort" is a bridge symptom of the trauma group network and the results of bridge symptoms in the no-trauma group are not stable.

This study did not categorize all individuals according to specific types of trauma experiences and it is a cross-sectional design. The prevalences calculated in this study may not be generalizable.

Interventions targeting different bridge symptoms in the trauma and no-trauma network models may help reduce the severity of symptoms.