Investigating the Mediating role of Emotion Regulation Difficulty in the Relationship between Traumatic Childhood Experiences and Self-Criticism in Adulthood

This study aimed to investigate the mediating role of emotion regulation difficulty in the relationship between traumatic childhood experiences and self-criticism in adulthood.
The design of the present study was descriptive-correlational and structural equation modeling. The statistical population of this study included Iranian adults who lived in Mashhad in 2021. Among them, 331 individuals were selected as the research sample through the convenient sampling method. Data were collected online using the Levels of Self Criticism Scale by Thompson and Zarov in 2004 (LOCS), the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire by Bernstein et al. in 2003 (CTQ), and the Gratz and Roemer Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale by Gratz and Roemer in 2004 (DERS). Data analysis was performed with the Pearson correlation method and structural equation.
Findings showed that there was a significant correlation (P <0.01) between traumatic childhood experiences and emotion regulation difficulty with self-criticism. Also, the results of structural equation modeling showed that the model of the present study had a good fit and the mediating role of emotion regulation difficulty in the relationship between traumatic childhood experiences and self-criticism (χ2/df≤3 and significance level of 0.001) was significant.
According to the findings of this study, traumatic childhood experiences can predict and influence self-criticism by interacting with the emotion regulation difficulty.