Home quarantine during COVID-19 blunted childhood trauma-related psychiatric symptoms in Chinese college students

Wenjuan Hong; Qiang Wang; Qinghong Hou; Nan Zhao; Ruoling Wang; Yan Bai; Chengping Hu; Weiqing Liu

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2023.1073141

Home quarantine during COVID-19 blunted childhood trauma-related psychiatric symptoms in Chinese college students

Front Public Health. 2023 May 25:11:1073141. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1073141. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Wenjuan Hong¹, Qiang Wang¹, Qinghong Hou², Nan Zhao¹, Ruoling Wang², Yan Bai³, Chengping Hu¹, Weiqing Liu¹

Affiliations

¹ Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders, Shanghai Pudong New Area Mental Health Center, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
² Department of Student Mental Health, Dianchi College, Yunnan University, Kunming, China.
³ Department of Psychiatry, First Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University, Kunming, China.

Abstract

Background: Childhood trauma confers risks to mental health. However, little is known about whether home quarantine (HQ) during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic exaggerated or mitigated the effect of childhood trauma on mental health.

Objective: To examine the modulating effects of prior childhood traumas on the longitudinal changes of psychiatric symptoms in college students before and after HQ during the pandemic.

Methods: This was a two-wave longitudinal study on the mental health of 2,887 college students before and after HQ during the COVID-19 pandemic. The relationships between the changes in the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90), 16-item Prodromal Questionnaire (PQ-16), Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), and Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS) scores were analyzed.

Results: The students with childhood trauma showed a significantly greater decrement in psychiatric symptoms after HQ (F = 17.21, 14.11, 18.87, and 17.42 for PHQ-9, PQ-16 objective and distress, and SCL-90, respectively). The correlation coefficients between the CTQ and these symptoms scales were significant at baseline (r = 0.42, 0.34, 0.37, and 0.39), and decreased after HQ (r = 0.17, 0.20, 0.18, and 0.19). The decrement of depressive, psychotic, and overall symptoms was positively correlated with the scores of the CTQ (r = 0.08-0.27) but negatively correlated with SSRS (r = -0.08--0.14). Multilinear regression analysis confirmed the results of the CTQ and SSRS regarding the modulation of the dynamic changes in psychiatric symptoms. A constructed structural equation model indicated that the total effects of childhood trauma on decreased psychiatric symptoms were partly mediated by lower baseline social support.

Conclusion: Home quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic could blunt the adverse effects of childhood trauma on mental health, especially for prodromal psychotic symptoms in college students. Changes in relative deprivation and social support may be mediating factors.

Keywords: childhood trauma; college student; home quarantine; mental health; social supports.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adverse Childhood Experiences*
COVID-19* / epidemiology
Humans
Longitudinal Studies
Pandemics
Quarantine
Students