Peer-reviewed article

Childhood Emotional Maltreatment and Mental Health Outcomes Among Young Adults: The Role of Emotion Regulation Strategy Use

Morgan J. Milne, Francesca Penner · 8 Oct 2026

Abstract

Childhood maltreatment represents a major public health concern, contributing to an elevated risk of mental health disorders during adolescents and young adulthood (Taillieu et al., 2016; Edwards et al., 2003). While physical and sexual abuse and their effects on psychological and physical health outcomes have been widely studied, emotional abuse and neglect - which collectively constitute emotional maltreatment (Strathearn et al., 2020) - have been less researched, despite evidence suggesting that they may be similarly, if not more, damaging than physical and sexual abuse (Thomson et al., 2026). Indeed, emerging evidence demonstrates that emotional maltreatment is associated with adverse mental health outcomes including depression, anxiety, PTSD, eating disorders, and substance use (Taillieu et al., 2016; Cecil et al., 2017). More recently, research has begun to examine positive childhood experiences (PCE), characterised by perceptions of safety, security, and support as a child, and their potential protective role in mental health. In contrast to childhood emotional maltreatment (CEM), PCEs have been associated with positive mental health, with adolescents reporting fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety, and greater symptoms of resilience and flourishing (Xu et al., 2022; Jadhav et al., 2025). Moreover, researchers have suggested that PCEs may buffer against the adverse effects of CEM (Feiler et al., 2023). However, further research is needed to examine both constructs’ associations with mental health concurrently, as well as the mechanisms that may underpin these relationships. One mechanism that has received increasing attention is emotion regulation. Most commonly, research has identified the mediating role of emotion dysregulation; that is, childhood maltreatment has been found to predict deficits in emotion regulation abilities, which, in turn, are associated with poorer mental health outcomes (Gruhn & Compas, 2020; Miu et al., 2022; Thomson et al., 2026). A specific dimension of emotion dysregulation that has been identified as a significant risk factor in this relationship is lack of access to emotion regulation strategies (Rudenstine et al., 2018). This raises warrant for research to specifically examine how typically adaptive (e.g., cognitive reappraisal and acceptance) and maladaptive (e.g., expressive suppression and rumination) emotion regulation strategies are being used, and how these strategies may mediate the relationship between childhood experiences and mental health (Peter et al., 2026). In addition to understanding the relationships between childhood experiences and emotion regulation toward mental health (e.g. depressive and anxiety symptoms), simultaneously examining relationships with mechanisms associated with positive mental health, such as resilience, will establish a more comprehensive understanding of both the positive and negative outcomes associated with CEM and PCE (Jadhav et al., 2025). As such, the aim of this study is to examine the relationships among young adults’ experiences of childhood emotional maltreatment and positive childhood experiences, their use of emotion regulation strategies, and both mental health and resilience outcomes.