Adverse childhood experiences and adult trait anxiety: The mediating role of metacognition

Adversities suffered at an early age lead to negative long-term effects impacting the development of the emotional, social, and cognitive domains of the personality, including metacognitive skills. We aimed to investigate the mediating role of metacognition in the impact exercised by early adversities on trait anxiety. Participants (all over 18) were recruited from the general population (n = 304). Adverse childhood experiences were assessed using the 10-item Adverse Childhood Questionnaire, for the assessment of maladaptive metacognitive beliefs the Meta-Cognitions Questionnaire was applied, while the level of the trait anxiety was investigated using the Trait Version of the State-Trait Anxiety inventory. To examine the mediating effect of metacognition between early adversities and trait anxiety mediation analysis was used. Adverse childhood experiences have a moderate effect on trait anxiety (β = 0.348, p < 0.001). More than half of the revealed associations were shown to be due to the maladaptive functioning of metacognition (Pm = 56.03 %). As regards specific maladaptive metacognitive beliefs, it was found that negative metacognitive beliefs (Pm = 61.49 %), the need to control thoughts (Pm = 46.0 %), and the lack of cognitive confidence (Pm = 30.07 %) play a crucial role in the mediating effect of metacognition. We can assume that the overall negative impact of early adversities on development is also manifested by the inadequacy of metacognition, which contributes to anxiety proneness. This inadequacy leads to the development of maladaptive metacognitive beliefs that prevent proper monitoring and correcting of the individual's internal contents, further increasing the level of trait-like anxiety.