Exploring pathways between childhood parental abuse and adulthood generalized anxiety disorder: The roles of neuroticism, extraversion, and conscientiousness.

BACKGROUND: Childhood parental abuse is an established risk factor for adulthood generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), but the personality mechanisms explaining this pathway are underinvestigated. Based on developmental psychopathology and triple vulnerability models, this study evaluated whether neuroticism, extraversion, and conscientiousness mediated the 18-year prospective paths from maternal and paternal abuse to adulthood GAD severity. Each abuse source was tested independently.

METHOD: Community adults (N = 3293) (M age = 45.61 years, standard deviation [SD] = 11.41, range = 20-86; 54.95% women; 89.7% non-Hispanic White) participated in three Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS) study waves. A parallel latent variable mediation analysis estimated all three personality traits as mediators. Covariate-adjusted analyses controlled for age, sex, race, education, and body mass index (BMI). Random-intercept cross-lagged panel models (RI-CLPMs) and residualized-change models differentiated trait-level from within-person effects.

RESULTS: Greater maternal, but not paternal, abuse significantly predicted higher neuroticism, which, in turn, significantly mediated the path to GAD symptoms (B = 0.051, p = .008). This effect remained significant after covariate adjustment and in unadjusted and covariate-adjusted RI-CLPMs (Bs = 0.074 and 0.060, ps < .001), though paternal abuse showed a smaller effect. Change-based mediation was attenuated (B = 0.007, p = .014). Conscientiousness and extraversion did not mediate any path.

DISCUSSION: Neuroticism mediated the 18-year path from childhood maternal abuse to GAD symptoms, mainly via trait-level differences, but pre-existing personality differences are still potential confounders. Neuroticism-focused prevention approaches, possibly optimized via transdiagnostic strategies, require assessment.