Investigation of the mediating effect of emotion regulation difficulties and containing functions on the relationship between mothers childhood mental traumas and depressive symptoms in their children

In this study, it was aimed to determine the depressive symptoms that can be seen in the children of mothers with childhood trauma due to difficulties in emotion regulation and inclusive functions. To the participants; Demographic information form, Childhood Traumas Scale (CTQ-33), Emotion Regulation Difficulties Scale (DERS-16), Parent Inclusive Functioning Scale (KIO) and Child Depressive Symptom Scale (CDSO) were applied. The hypotheses were analyzed using the Structural Equation Modeling technique, using the serial multiple mediation model method, with the information obtained from the mothers of 37–80-month-old children consisting of 688 children. It has been observed that this model with two mediating variables includes 1 direct and 3 indirect effects. According to the results of the research, the relationship between childhood traumas of mothers and depressive symptoms in their children could be confirmed, and it was determined that this relationship was mediated by the mother's emotional regulation difficulties and inclusive functions. Along with these results, the effect of the mother's childhood trauma on the child's depressive symptom through the mother's overarching functions was also found to be statistically significant. However, the effect of maternal childhood trauma on child depression through emotional dysregulation was not statistically significant. The direct, indirect and total effects of all internal and external variables in the model on each other are reported. Keywords: Child depression, Childhood trauma, Containing functions, Emotion regulation difficulties