Our finding that the relationship between emotional abuse and alcohol dependence severity can be partially accounted for by neurotic personality traits is consistent with other studies that have suggested a mediating role for neuroticism in the association between stressful life experiences and adult behavioral health (Gamble et al., 2006). Neuroticism is broadly defined as the propensity for negative emotionality, with underlying subfacets including anxiety, anger hostility, self-consciousness, vulnerability, depression, and impulsiveness. These traits develop in late childhood, after which it has been argued that they either remain relatively stable in adulthood (Costa, Jr. and McCrae, 1988), or comprise both a stable component (i.e., a person-specific set point) and a fluctuating component that is sensitive to life experiences (Ormel et al., 2012). The stable set-point is proposed to be the risk factor for alcohol dependence and other psychopathology, consistent with the notion that early childhood trauma would play a role in establishing this set-point. Our data indicate that emotional abuse is positively associated with high levels of neurotic personality traits in general; however, only the impulsiveness subfacet was found to subsequently
