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©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
Self-compassion and resilience mediate the relationship between childhood exposure to domestic violence and posttraumatic growth/stress disorder during COVID-19 pandemic
Xin-Li Chi, Qiao-Min Huang, Xiao-Feng Liu, Liu-Yue Huang, Meng-Jian Hu, Zhi-Jing Chen, Can Jiao, Brendon Stubbs, M Mahbub Hossain, Li-Ye Zou
Xin-Li Chi, Liu-Yue Huang, Meng-Jian Hu, Zhi-Jing Chen, Can Jiao, Institute of KEEP Collaborative Innovation, School of Psychology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, Guangdong Province, China
Qiao-Min Huang, Guangdong Polytechnic, Foshan 528041, Guangdong Province, China
Xiao-Feng Liu, Longhua No. 2 Experimental School Affiliated Hongchuang Kindergarten, Shenzhen 518100, Guangdong Province, China
Brendon Stubbs, Physiotherapy Department, South London & Maudsley NHS Fdn Trust, London WC2R 2LS, United Kingdom
Brendon Stubbs, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London WC2R 2LS, United Kingdom
M Mahbub Hossain, School of Public Health, Texas A&M University, Texas, TX 77843, United States
Li-Ye Zou, Exercise Psychophysiology Laboratory, Institute of KEEP Collaborative Innovation, School of Psychology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, Guangdong Province, China
Author contributions: Chi XL drafted the manuscript, completed the literature searches, and revised the final version of the manuscript; Huang QM drafted the manuscript and performed the statistical analyses; Liu XF, Huang LY, Jiao C, Stubbs B, and Hossain MM drafted the manuscript; Hu MJ and Chen ZJ revised the manuscript and performed the statistical analyses; Zou LY contributed to the study design.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of Medical Department of Shenzhen University (Approval No. 2020005).
Informed consent statement: Informed written consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The author(s) declare no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Data sharing statement: Technical appendix, statistical code, and dataset available from the corresponding author at liyezou123@gmail.com. Participants gave informed consent for data sharing
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE statement, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE statement.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See:
http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/ Corresponding author: Li-Ye Zou, PhD, Professor, Exercise Psychophysiology Laboratory, Institute of KEEP Collaborative Innovation, School of Psychology, Shenzhen University, No. 3688 Nanhai Avenue, Nanshan District, Shenzhen 518060, Guangdong Province, China. liyezou123@gmail.com
Received: February 11, 2021
Peer-review started: February 11, 2021
First decision: March 16, 2021
Revised: May 2, 2021
Accepted: July 16, 2021
Article in press: July 16, 2021
Published online: November 19, 2021
BACKGROUND
Studies have indicated that childhood exposure to domestic violence is a common factor in posttraumatic growth (PTG) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but it is unclear whether PTG and PTSD share a common/different underlying mechanism.
AIM
To explore the common/different underlying mechanism of PTG and PTSD.
METHODS
Between February 12 and 17, 2020, a nationwide cross-sectional online survey was conducted in China among 2038 university students, and a self-administered questionnaire was used for the data collection. The data included demographic characteristics, such as age, gender, and subjective social economic status, and childhood exposure to domestic violence scale that was selected from the Chinese version of revised Adverse Childhood Experiences Question, Self-compassion Scale, Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale, Posttraumatic Growth Inventory, and the Abbreviated PTSD Checklist-Civilian version. A structural equation model was used to test the hypotheses.
RESULTS
Exposure to domestic violence was significantly associated with PTG and PTSD via a 1-step indirect path of self-compassion (PTG: β = -0.023, 95%CI: -0.44 to -0.007; PTSD: β = 0.008, 95%CI: 0.002, 0.014) and via a 2-step indirect path from self-compassion to resilience (PTG: β = -0.008, 95%CI: -0.018 to -0.002; PTSD: β = 0.013, 95%CI: 0.004-0.024). However, resilience did not mediate the relationship between exposure to domestic violence and PTG and PTSD.
CONCLUSION
PTG and PTSD are common results of childhood exposure to domestic violence, which may be influenced by self-compassion and resilience.
Core Tip: The present study explored the issue that whether posttraumatic growth (PTG) and PT stress disorder (PTSD) have a common underlying mechanism via self-compassion and resilience. This is the first study that examined the mechanisms underlying the association of domestic violence with PTG and PTSD among college students during the coronavirus disease-2019 pandemic, providing insights into the development of PTG and PTSD in the context of a global pandemic, which emphasize unique psychosocial dynamics.
