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University of Leeds psychologists report that stress appraisal and perceived stress act as key conduits linking childhood trauma to adult depression, anxiety, defeat, and entrapment.

Childhood trauma affects nearly one third of young people in the United Kingdom. Early experiences of abuse or neglect have been associated with depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and substance use later in life.

Exposure to multiple types of trauma has been linked to higher rates of suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts. Females who experience childhood sexual abuse can face substantially elevated risks of attempting suicide compared to peers without such histories.

Previous research has examined connections between childhood trauma and feelings of defeat and entrapment, which are regarded as indicators of suicide risk. Daily hassles have been proposed as contributors to poor health outcomes that can surpass the impact of acute traumatic events.

In the study, "Effects of childhood trauma on mental health outcomes, suicide risk factors and stress appraisals in adulthood, " published in PLOS One, researchers adopted an online prospective design to investigate whether childhood trauma was associated with mental health outcomes, suicide risk factors, and stress-related outcomes, and to determine whether stress appraisal and perceived stress mediate the effects of childhood trauma on these outcomes.

A total of 273 adults participated, with a mean age of 38 years. Nearly 48.4% identified as male. Most participants identified as white and reported employment status.

Recruitment occurred through the Prolific Academic online platform. Participants completed two online sessions one week apart. Session 1 included questionnaires assessing demographics, childhood trauma, perceived social support, subjective socioeconomic status, and lifetime suicide-related experiences.

Session 2 included measures of daily stress appraisals, perceived stress, depression severity, anxiety severity, perceived defeat, and perceived entrapment.

Researchers used the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, Daily Stressor Appraisal Scale, Perceived Stress Scale—Brief, Patient Health Questionnaire-9, Generalized Anxiety Disorder Assessment-7, Defeat Scale, Entrapment Scale, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, MacArthur Scale of Subjective Social Status, and Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey. Moderation analyses tested the influence of social support, subjective socioeconomic status, and prior suicide-related history.

Greater exposure to childhood trauma was associated with roughly 15 to 35% higher scores on depression, anxiety, defeat, and entrapment compared to those reporting less trauma exposure. Higher childhood trauma was linked to increases in perceived stress and stress appraisal scores by similar proportions.

Significant indirect effects via perceived stress and via stress appraisal emerged for every mental-health and suicide-risk outcome. Social support, subjective socioeconomic status, and prior suicide-related history did not moderate those associations.

Authors conclude that everyday cognitive evaluations of hassles form a psychological bridge from early adversity to adult distress, suggesting that interventions for trauma survivors could sharpen their focus on stress appraisal alongside conventional symptom-based treatment.

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More information: Leizhi Wang et al, Effects of childhood trauma on mental health outcomes, suicide risk factors and stress appraisals in adulthood, PLOS One (2025). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0326120  Journal information: PLoS ONE

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