Childhood trauma and internalizing problems in youth living in residential care: The mediating role of emotion regulation

Youth in child protective services (CPS) residential care present with multiple challenges, including concerning rates of internalizing problems (i. e. anxiety, depression, social withdrawal, and somatic complaints). Extant research suggests internalizing problems may be traced back to experiences of childhood trauma, which are unfortunately commonly endured by residential care youth. Emotion regulation has been shown to be a mediating factor in the association between childhood trauma and internalizing problems; however, the mechanisms linking childhood trauma and internalizing problems have rarely been studied in residential care youth. This study examined the mediating role of emotion regulation in the association between childhood trauma and internalizing problems in CPS residential care youth in Quebec. One hundred ninety-nine male adolescents aged 15–17 were recruited from residential care centers and completed self-report questionnaires. Mediation analyses revealed that emotional abuse and emotional neglect – but not physical abuse, sexual abuse and physical neglect – were associated with internalizing problems, the former through a higher use of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies and the latter through a reduced use of adaptive emotion regulation strategies. Emotional neglect was also associated with a reduced use of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies, suggesting that this type of childhood trauma is linked to an overall underuse of emotion regulation strategies. This study highlights the importance of considering emotional regulation in our understanding of the impacts of childhood trauma among residential care youth as well as in our efforts to prevent, assess, and treat internalizing problems in this population.