Exploring the Relationship Between Childhood Maltreatment and Suicidal Ideation: Gender Differences in the Mediating Roles of Self-Compassion and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Abstract

Existing studies and theories suggest that childhood maltreatment by parents is a significant risk factor for suicidal ideation. While prior research has examined various influencing factors, further exploration is needed to clarify the shared mechanisms underlying this relationship. This study examines the mediating roles of self-compassion and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and whether this association differs by gender. Adopting a longitudinal design, we conducted self-report surveys at three different time points, each 6 months apart. The final sample comprised 517 students (299 women; M age = 19.00, SD = 1.31) from four universities in China, all of whom had been exposed to at least one type of childhood maltreatment before the age of 16. Bias-corrected bootstrap estimation was employed to examine the mediating relationships. After controlling for negative life events, our analysis revealed gender-specific mediating pathways. We found that uncompassionate self-responding and PTSD played a chain mediating role in the relationships between childhood maltreatment and suicidal ideation for women only. In contrast, for men, there was a positive relationship between childhood maltreatment and suicidal ideation via an indirect path from compassionate self-responding to PTSD. Our findings suggest that compassionate self-responding may serve as a protective factor for those who were abused or neglected during their childhood, while uncompassionate self-responding may aggravate negative psychological outcomes such as PTSD and later suicidal ideation. In addition, special attention should be given to the observed gender differences in these pathways. Gender-specific interventions may be more effective in mitigating the long-term psychological impacts of childhood maltreatment.