Association between adverse childhood experiences and depressive symptoms in college students: A chain mediation model of Big Five personality traits and sleep quality.

BACKGROUND

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are known risk factors for mental health problems in adulthood, yet the underlying psychological and behavioral pathways remain insufficiently understood. Personality traits and sleep quality may play crucial mediating roles linking early adversity to later depressive symptoms. This study aimed to examine the chained mediation mechanism of Big Five personality traits and sleep quality in the association between ACEs and depressive symptoms among Chinese university students.

METHODS

A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 14,381 Chinese university students. The Adverse Childhood Experiences International Questionnaire (ACE-IQ), the 10-item Big Five Inventory (BFI-10), the brief Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (B-PSQI), and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) were used to assess key variables. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was applied to test the chained mediation model while controlling for age and gender. Robustness and clustering analyses were conducted to ensure model stability and data independence.

RESULTS

ACEs were positively associated with depressive symptoms (total standardized effect = 0.202, p < 0.001). Neuroticism and agreeableness significantly mediated this relationship both directly and indirectly through sleep quality. The chained mediation path-ACEs → neuroticism → sleep quality → depressive symptoms-was statistically significant (p < 0.001) and demonstrated good model fit (CFI = 0.867, GFI = 0.924, RMSEA = 0.077). Sensitivity analyses confirmed the robustness of the findings.

CONCLUSIONS

The results support a chained mediation model in which adverse childhood experiences affect depressive symptoms through personality traits and sleep quality. Personality traits, especially neuroticism and agreeableness, together with sleep quality, represent key intervention targets for mitigating the long-term mental health consequences of early-life adversity among young adults.