Katharine Chisholm1, Alexandra Stainton1, Sian Griffiths1, Mariam Iqbal1, Stephen Wood2, Rachel Upthegrove1, The PRONIA Consortium3; 1Institute for Mental Health, University of Birmingham, 2Orygen, The National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health, Melbourne; Centre for Youth Mental Health, University of Melbourne, 3The PRONIA Consortium consists of 11 partners from five different EU member states as well as Switzerland and Australia
Childhood trauma has been found to play a role in development and severity for a wide range of psychopathology. Psychological resilience may represent a protective mechanism against the development of mental illness, and has been related to lower symptom severity and better functioning. The current study aimed to investigate the potential mediating role of resilience between childhood trauma, symptoms and functioning. Trauma was measured using the CTQ and resilience via the RSA. Psychotic-spectrum symptoms were measured using the SIPS. Depression was measured via the BDI-II. The GAF was used to measure functioning, including functional burden caused by symptoms, as well as disability/impairment. 710 participants aged 14-40 were included in the analysis. This included 155 first-onset psychosis (FOP), 137 clinical high-risk for psychosis (CHR), 145 first-onset depression (FOD), and 273 healthy controls (HC). Resilience was found to significantly mediate the relationship between childhood trauma and depression in all participant groups. For HC and ROD participants, resilience mediated the relationship between childhood trauma and both functioning subscales. For ROP and CHR, resilience mediated the relationship between childhood trauma with general and negative psychotic-spectrum symptoms. For the CHR group resilience mediated the relationship between childhood trauma and GAF disability/impairment. Resilience was not found to play a mediating role between childhood trauma and positive or disorganised psychotic-spectrum symptoms for any participant group. Interventions promoting resilience in individuals who have experienced childhood trauma may potentially help to protect against a variety of negative outcomes in later years, in particular those related to depression.
