Abstract
Background: Childhood trauma is associated with the development of anxiety disorders, but it is yet to be determined how childhood trauma is linked to anxiety in adulthood (adult onset anxiety). One possible reason for this route has been speculated to relate to the development of low self-esteem in later years. However, most of the research on this topic has looked only at western populations with limited research looking at non-western populations.
Objective: To investigate the relationship between childhood trauma and Self-esteem and anxiety symptoms among young adults of Pakistan. The major focus will be on the potential mediation of the relationship between childhood trauma and anxiety by self-esteem.
Methods: This study aimed at understanding how Childhood Trauma (CT), Self Esteem (SE), and Generalized Anxiety (GA) all relate to each other in young adults (between ages of 18-35) through a total sample size of 132 participants (56.8% male). Participants filled out the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale (RSES) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) questionnaires, and a Pearson correlation coefficient was used to check the relationships between CT, SE & GA, a linear regression analysis in SPSS v23 was performed.
Results: Significant negative correlation was found between early life trauma and self-esteem (r=-0.241; p = 0.005) and moderate positive correlation was found between early life trauma and anxiety (r=0.400; p < .01). However, there was a very large negative correlation between self-esteem and anxiety (r=-0.537; p < 0.001) and this finding corroborates the negative correlation between CT & SE mentioonned above. Based on regression analysis, it was found that self-esteem had a significant predictive relationship towards anxiety (β = -0.543; p < 0.001), while the effect of CT on anxiety was not independent when added with self-esteem in the regression model previously discussed.
Conclusion: The results of the present study indicate that the symptoms of anxiety might be more directly associated with the development of self-esteem than with childhood trauma. So that we can conclude that self-esteem can be the process through which childhood trauma affects an adult’s mental health. What may be helpful for adults who have experienced childhood trauma is to use the effects of childhood trauma (self-esteem) to assist in the better development of self-esteem.