Cracks in the Foundation: Disrupted Epistemic Trust as a Pathway Between Early Relational Trauma, PTSD and Disturbances in Self-Organization

Abstract Traumatic experiences profoundly impact mental and physical health, alongside an individual’s trust in their social environment. Disruptions in epistemic trust – the ability to evaluate and trust socially communicated information – are theorized to increase vulnerability to psychopathology by impairing social learning. This cross-sectional study investigated associations between trauma characteristics and epistemic stance using self-report data from a representative German sample ( N = 2519). We examined relationships among trauma type, age at trauma, epistemic stance, PTSD and cPTSD. Neither trauma type nor timing alone predicted epistemic stance. However, their interaction revealed that early relational trauma demonstrated the strongest association with epistemic disruption. Within epistemic stance, heightened credulity mediated associations between trauma and both PTSD and cPTSD. Findings align with the hypothesis that early relational trauma disrupts epistemic trust, increasing susceptibility to psychopathology. Clarifying how trauma type and timing interact to shape epistemic stance can advance trauma-informed interventions and therapeutic approaches.