Does perceived emotional invalidation moderate the link between specific types of childhood traumas and emotion dysregulation in predicting psychological distress?

Abstract

Although emotion dysregulation has been established as a mediator between childhood traumas (CTs) and psychological distress, there is limited knowledge about the moderating role of perceived emotional invalidation (PEI) in the relationship between specific forms of CT and emotional dysregulation. The main objective of this study was to examine the moderating role of PEI in the relationship between five forms of CT, emotion dysregulation, and psychological distress. In this study, 1613 participants from central, northern, southern, western, and eastern regions of Iran participated. They completed the following questionnaires: the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form (CTQ-SF), the Perceived Invalidation of Emotion Scale (PIES), the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), and the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS). The PROCESS SPSS macro was used to conduct a mediation-moderation analysis. The mediation models revealed that emotion dysregulation partially mediated the relationship between three types of and psychological distress. Additionally, emotion dysregulation fully mediated the relationship between emotional neglect and psychological distress. In the moderated-mediation models, PEI only moderated the association between emotional abuse and emotion dysregulation. This result indicates that in environments where individuals demonstrated the lowest levels of emotional abuse, a protective effect was observed such that low PEI predicted low emotion dysregulation and lower psychological distress.