Citation

LeMoult J, Humphreys KL, King LS, Colich NL, Price AN, Ordaz SJ, Gotlib IH. J. Abnorm. Child Psychol. 2019; 47(2): 199-207.

Affiliation

Stanford University, Bldg. 420, Jordan Hall, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s10802-018-0430-x

PMID

29774495

Abstract

Despite the high prevalence and substantial costs of early life stress (ELS), the mechanisms through which ELS confers risk for psychopathology are poorly understood, particularly among youth who are in an earlier stage of the transition through puberty. We sought to advance our understanding of the link between ELS and psychopathology by testing whether rumination mediates the relation between ELS and symptoms of psychopathology in youth in the early stages of puberty, and whether sex moderates this mediation. We assessed levels of ELS, both brooding and reflection subtypes of rumination, and internalizing and externalizing symptoms in 170 youth in the early stages of puberty (56% girls) ages 9-13 years. Brooding, but not reflection, mediated the relation between ELS and both internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Importantly, however, sex moderated the relation among ELS, brooding, and symptoms. Specifically, brooding mediated the relation between ELS and both internalizing and externalizing symptoms for girls, but not for boys.

FINDINGS support the formulation that brooding is a mechanism linking ELS to multiple forms of behavioral and emotional problems exclusively in girls in the early stages of puberty.

Language: en

Keywords

Early life stress; Psychopathology; Rumination; Sex differences