Date of Completion

2023

Document Type

Honors College Thesis

Department

Psychological Sciences

Thesis Type

Honors College

First Advisor

Dr. Matthew Price

Keywords

childhood maltreatment, social support, COVID-19, depression, anxiety, PTSD

Abstract

Childhood maltreatment places individuals at greater risk for developing psychopathology in adulthood. Social support has been shown to moderate mental health outcomes. The Coronavirus of 2019 (COVID-19) resulted in a pandemic that created an environment that increased isolation through quarantine rules, therefore decreasing opportunities to socialize and receive social support. The relationship between social support, the perceived impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, depression, anxiety, and PTSD during the first year of the pandemic was explored in a sample of young adults with and without childhood maltreatment. It was hypothesized that social support and the perceived impact of the pandemic moderated changes in psychopathology symptoms in a cohort of young adults with a history of childhood maltreatment. Results showed significant increases in both depression and PTSD symptoms at the start of the pandemic. No significant moderation effects were found for social support or the perceived impact of the pandemic.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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