Association between childhood adversities and mental well-being in young adults: The mediational role of negative metacognitive beliefs

Abstract

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have long been known to convey cumula tive risks for poor mental outcomes in later years. The evidence on association between ACEs, mental well-being (MWB) and their interaction process in young adults is scarce. We sought to adapt the mediational role of metacognitive beliefs within the psychopathological framework to perceived mental health conception. Participants were college students (N=144, mean age 21.13 (SD=3.30), 119 fe males) who completed online questionnaire battery evaluating sociodemographic features, ACEs, pathologic worrying, state anxiety, metacognitive beliefs, and men tal well-being. Significant associations were found among ACEs, MWB, worry, anxiety, and metacognitive beliefs. When MWB was regressed on all predictors (ACEs, worry, anxiety, and metacognitive beliefs), uncontrollability and danger (UD) remained the only significant metacognitive belief alongside these variables. In the subsequent analyses, the role of UD was evident in the more parsimonious models; however, the additional indirect associations was not significant once both worry and state anxiety were incorporated in the structural equation. Our results suggest that metacognitions may represent an important correlate of the associa tions between ACEs and MWB in early adulthood. Negative beliefs might be a interventional target to promote MWB before developing anxiety symptoms for college students at risk for ACEs.