The Moderating Effect of Contact with Children on the Relationship between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Depression in Adulthood among a Chinese Adult Population.

The effect of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on depression in adulthood has been identified in many studies; however, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. To understand the moderating effect of ACEs on depression, a moderation analysis using the interaction effect model was performed based on data obtained from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. This study found that people with ACEs had significantly lower depression scores than those without ACEs, particularly in categories such as physical abuse, emotional neglect, sibling death, parental illness/disability, parental depression, hunger, violence, and bullying.