Interpersonal guilt as a pathway linking childhood trauma and personality dysfunction: The contribution of epistemic mistrust

Background: Childhood trauma is strongly implicated in personality dysfunction. Control Mastery Theory emphasizes the role of pathogenic beliefs and interpersonal guilt in generating and sustaining psychopathology. Epistemic mistrust (EM) undermines social learning and relational functioning. This study is the first to investigate the relationship between interpersonal guilt and EM, and their joint mediating role in the link between childhood trauma and personality dysfunction. Method: 275 participants completed self-report measures of childhood trauma, interpersonal guilt, EM, and personality functioning. Correlational, exploratory regression, and mediation analyses tested hypothesized relationships. Results: Childhood trauma, particularly emotional abuse, was associated with higher personality dysfunction, interpersonal guilt (notably self-hate, burdening guilt, and survivor guilt), and EM. Regression analyses indicated that emotional abuse was the trauma type uniquely linked to these interpersonal guilt forms, accounting for the effects of other trauma types. Mediation analyses showed that self-hate and burdening guilt independently mediated the emotional abuse–personality dysfunction link. EM also emerged as a weaker but significant mediator. A serial mediation pathway indicated that emotional abuse predicted greater burdening guilt, which heightened EM, ultimately contributing to personality dysfunction. Conclusions: Burdening guilt and self-hate play a central role in linking emotional abuse to personality dysfunction. Although EM was a weaker mediator, it may reflect a downstream consequence of pathogenic beliefs underlying interpersonal guilt, further compromising relational adaptation. Addressing both interpersonal guilt and epistemic stance may be important for fostering therapeutic change in trauma-related personality dysfunction. Limitations: Cross-sectional design limits causal inference; self-report measures and sample composition may introduce bias.