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Published on: November 9, 2019
Childhood Trauma, Depression, and Problematic Gaming in Chinese Adolescents: The Moderating Role of Self-compassion
Yuqing Wu1, Yin Yuan2, Zhen Wang3
1Department of Psychology, Shandong Normal University, No. 88 East Wenhua Road, Jinan, 250014 Shandong China.
Objectives:
This study investigated the relationships among childhood trauma, depression, self-compassion, and problematic gaming among adolescents.
Methods:
A sample of 1,749 seventh-grade students (54.1% male, M age = 12.27 years, SD = 0.47) from a public secondary school in Henan Province, China, participated in the research. Participants completed standardized questionnaires assessing childhood trauma, depression, self-compassion, and pathological online game use.
Results:
Results indicated that childhood trauma was positively associated with increased levels of problematic gaming, with depression mediating a substantial portion of this relationship. Notably, self-compassion emerged as a critical moderating factor, influencing the relationships between childhood trauma and both depression and problematic gaming. Specifically, higher levels of self-compassion were found to mitigate the adverse effects of childhood trauma, weakening its associations with depression and problematic gaming. We identified a conditional mediation effect, revealing that the mediating role of depression in the relationship between childhood trauma and problematic gaming was significant only among adolescents with high levels of self-compassion.
Conclusions:
This novel finding suggests that self-compassion not only buffers against negative outcomes but also alters the underlying psychological mechanisms linking trauma to behavioral problems.
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