Maltreatment experiences and depression in adolescents: The moderating effect of psychosocial functioning

Depression is a serious health problem among adolescents which may be associated with poor psychosocial functioning and may be a consequence of maltreatment experiences. The aims of this study are to explore the predictive effect of the occurrence of maltreatment and poor psychosocial functioning in depressive symptoms, and the moderating effect of psychosocial functioning in the relation between maltreatment experience and depressive symptomatology, that is underexplored in the literature. The sample consists of 432 adolescents (between 13-17 years, mostly female) who participated in a Portuguese study about prevention of adolescent depression (PTDC/MHC-PCL/4824/2012). Two self-report questionnaires were used: the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form (CTQ-SF; Bernstein et al., 2003; Portuguese version: Matos & Pereira, 2012) to evaluate the maltreatment experience, and the Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI; Kovacs, 1985; Portuguese version: Marujo, 1994) to measure the level of depressive symptomatology. To assess the psychosocial functioning of adolescents was applied the Adolescent Longitudinal Interval FollowUp Evaluation (A-LIFE, Keller et al., 1993; Portuguese version: Matos & Costa, 2011). Results showed that the experience of emotional maltreatment and poor psychosocial functioning are predictors of depressive symptoms. The psychosocial functioning has a moderating effect on the relationship between emotional abuse experience and depressive symptoms. Adolescents with high scores of emotional abuse and a poor