Open Access

ARTICLE

Mediating Effect of Mindfulness, Self-Esteem and Psychological Resilience in the Relation between Childhood Maltreatment and Life Satisfaction

He Zhong^1,*, Yaping Zhou², Chenwei Liu³, Yintao Cao²

1 Beijing Huijia Private School, Beijing, 102299, China
2 Department of Psychology, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, 410081, China
3 School of Education, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Xiangtan, 411100, China

* Corresponding Author: He Zhong. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Father/Mother Absence and Moral Emotion)

International Journal of Mental Health Promotion 2024, 26(6), 481-489. https://doi.org/10.32604/ijmhp.2024.049408

Received 01 January 2024; Accepted 10 May 2024; Issue published 28 June 2024

Abstract

Childhood maltreatment, as a typical early adverse environment, is known to have a negative impact on one’s life satisfaction. Mindfulness, on the other hand, may serve as a protective factor. This study explored the mediating role of mindfulness and its related variables–positive thoughts, psychological resilience and self-esteem. In order to testify the mechanism, we administered Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) to a non-clinical sample of Chinese university students (N = 1021). The results indicated that positive thoughts did not mediate the relationship between childhood maltreatment and life satisfaction, but self-esteem (β = −0.194, 95% CI = [−0.090, −0.040]) and psychological resilience (β = −0.063, 95% CI = [−0.059, −0.020]) mediated the relationship, as well as the “mindfulness-self-esteem” (β = −0.061, 95% CI = [−0.287, −0.126]) and “mindfulness-psychological resilience” (β = −0.035, 95% CI = [−0.115, −0.034]). The results of this study were helpful to understand the relationship between childhood maltreatment and life satisfaction and provided a theoretical basis for the development of mindfulness intervention programs from the perspective of positive psychology.

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Keywords

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