Invalidating childhood environment, adult distress, and emotional regulation: A mediational model
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24265/liberabit.2025.v31n2.1225Keywords:
Psychological distress, emotion regulation, invalidating childhood environment, mediationAbstract
Background: Studies indicate that the invalidating environment experienced by adults in childhood is associated with distress; recent findings suggest that this relationship could be mediated by emotional regulation. Objective: To explore whether emotional regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression) mediate the relationship between two types of invalidating childhood environments (paternal and maternal) and distress in university students. Method: A cross-sectional study involving 312 adults from a university in Lima. The mean age of study participants was 22.4 years, and 70.82% were women. The Short Version of the ICES Scale, the Simplified Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ-CA-9), and the Patient Health Questionnaire-4 (PHQ-4) were used. Mediation analysis was performed using structural equation modeling (SEM) using estimation maximum likelihood robust (MLR) and the bootstrap technique (5000 samples). Results: An indirect effect of the invalidating childhood environment on distress was found through expressive suppression, which was significant for maternal and paternal childhood invalidation; however, cognitive reappraisal did not show a significant effect as a mediating variable. Conclusion: Maternal and paternal childhood invalidation is associated with greater distress, partially explained by expressive suppression.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Diego A. Zegarra-Buendia, Andrea Elena Pomareda Vera, Margarita Vega Vázquez, Isabel Valentina Agurto Viera, Renzo Ricardo Palacios-Gil, Camilo José Quintana-Castro, Pablo D. Valencia
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