{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,5]],"date-time":"2026-03-05T19:07:12Z","timestamp":1772737632127,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":64,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,4,4]],"date-time":"2025-04-04T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1743724800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Psychiatry"],"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title>Background<\/jats:title><jats:p>Initial studies suggest that individuals with a history of traumatic life experiences, particularly childhood trauma, may be more susceptible to increased mental health problems in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title><jats:p>The present cross-sectional study compared the mental health status of three cohorts of university students before (2016), at the beginning (2020) and at the end (2022) of the COVID-19 pandemic. The students in each cohort were divided into two groups: those with self-reported moderate\/severe childhood trauma (n = 126) and those with no\/mild childhood trauma (n = 438).<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results<\/jats:title><jats:p>Across all cohorts, students with moderate\/severe childhood trauma consistently reported higher levels of psychological and physical stress compared to individuals with no\/mild childhood trauma experiences. However, only the no\/mild childhood trauma group exhibited an increase in mental health problems (i.e., heightened depressive symptoms and greater subjective impairment due to physical and psychological symptoms) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, within the no\/mild childhood trauma group, students in the 2022 cohort reported significantly higher psychological distress compared to those surveyed in 2020. In contrast, mental health scores among students with moderate\/severe childhood trauma remained unchanged across the pre-pandemic and pandemic cohorts.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title><jats:p>The findings of this study do not support the hypothesis that the COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately exacerbated mental health problems in individuals with a history of moderate to severe childhood trauma. Instead, our results suggest that the pandemic\u2019s impact on mental health was more pronounced in students with no or only mild childhood trauma.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyt.2025.1452732","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,4,4]],"date-time":"2025-04-04T16:36:39Z","timestamp":1743784599000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["No particularly negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the mental health of individuals with higher levels of childhood trauma"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"16","author":[{"given":"Elisabeth 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