Fight, flight, and freeze: Threat sensitivity and emotion dysregulation in survivors of chronic childhood maltreatment

•We investigated links between child abuse and a biological theory of personality.•Chronic but not non-chronic abuse predicted fight–flight–freeze system sensitivity.•Chronic but not non-chronic abuse predicted emotion dysregulation.•FFFS sensitivity mediated the link between chronic abuse and emotion dysregulation.

Chronic childhood maltreatment (C-CM) is thought to result in permanent neurobiological alterations to the brain that manifest as a threat-sensitivity trait. However, extant research has yet to identify this trait in the context of existing personality theories. The current study utilized the fight–flight–freeze system (FFFS), a brain subsystem of the revised reinforcement sensitivity theory of personality, to identify the threat-sensitivity trait proposed to result from C-CM. Research suggests that C-CM is associated with both FFFS sensitivity and emotion dysregulation (ED), whereby increased threat-sensitivity is thought to contribute to greater ED. Accordingly, C-CM was expected to predict FFFS sensitivity, which was expected to mediate the relationship between C-CM and ED in an undergraduate sample (N = 471). Participants were separated into three maltreatment groups: C-CM, non-chronic CM (NC-CM), and no CM. Results indicated that individuals with a history of C-CM reported greater FFFS sensitivity and ED than those with a history of NC-CM or no CM. Analysis of the significance of the indirect effect of C-CM on ED via FFFS sensitivity indicated that FFFS sensitivity partially mediated this relationship. Specifically, individuals with C-CM, compared to no CM, reported greater FFFS sensitivity, which significantly accounted for a portion of their increased ED.