(PS11-C51) The Protective Role of Redemption Among Women with Adverse Childhood Experiences

Adverse childhood experiences (ACES) increase the likelihood for a range of psychological difficulties in adulthood. Multiple mechanisms underlie the association between ACES and later psychopathology, including people’s beliefs about the meaning and personal impact of past negative events. Indeed, one way that CBT is believed to work is by helping individuals revise beliefs about themselves and their world that are grounded in childhood adversity.

How people make sense of past adversity is also a key feature in narrative identity theory (McAdams & McLean, 2013). Narrative identity is a person’s internalized and evolving “story” of the self, which includes efforts to connect the reconstructed past to the perceived present and anticipated future.  In narrative identity research, the presence of redemption (i.e., finding positive meaning or purpose in past negative events) or contamination (i.e., viewing past events as worsening one’s life) themes in describing past events is particularly relevant for understanding differences in current wellbeing (e.g., Adler, 2012). Although narrative identity research has focused primarily on normative populations, it may be useful for understanding differences in the long-term impact of childhood adversity (e.g., Lind et al., 2020).

Guided by narrative identity theory, the goal of this study was to test whether the relation between ACES and current psychopathology (depression, PTSD and BPD symptoms) was moderated by the presence of redemption and contamination themes in past memories. Participants included 193 women with a past psychiatric diagnosis in a three-wave online study of mental health and parenting. Consistent with previous studies (McAdams & McLean, 2013), mothers were asked to describe a “turning point memory” in their life and then verbatim responses were coded for redemption and contamination themes by three independent RAs (kappas >.70).  Regression analyses were used to test for moderating effects of turning point themes on the relation between ACES and symptoms.

The average ACES was 3.73 (SD = 2.70). 18% of responses included contamination themes; 45% included redemption themes. As expected, higher ACES was associated with more depression, PTSD, and BPD symptoms (β’s >.24).  Contamination themes were independently predictive of higher symptoms in the three domains (β’s >.16), but did not interact with ACES.  In contrast, redemption themes had no direct effects, but significantly interacted with ACES in predicting depression (β = -.14) and BPD (β = -.13) symptoms. Posthoc interaction probing showed that the presence of redemption themes was associated with significantly fewer depression and BPD symptoms only among women experiencing the most ACES.


Childhood adversity is associated with worse mental health; however, among women who experience the most adversity, the ability to find redemptive themes in negative experiences may play a protective role.