Sexual Trauma in Childhood and Adulthood as Predictors of Psychotic-like Experiences: The Mediating Role of Dissociation
Date
2021
Journal Title
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Child Abuse Review
Abstract
Research has highlighted the role of dissociation in understanding the trauma–
psychosis relationship. Moreover, it has been proposed that the association between
trauma and psychotic symptoms may be both directly and indirectly explained by
dissociative processes. The current study sought to investigate the relationship between
age at first sexual trauma, dissociative experiences and psychotic-like experiences
(PLEs) in 269 female trauma survivors (overall mean age = 32.11, SD = 10.55).
Mediation analyses were employed to estimate the direct effects of childhood sexual
abuse (CSA; mean age at abuse onset = 6.53, SD = 3.98) and adult sexual assault
(ASA; mean age at abuse onset = 18.72, SD = 2.59) on PLEs, and the indirect effects
via the three subscales of absorption, depersonalisation and amnesia. The findings
showed that the CSA group was significantly associated with each of the three
dissociation variables (p < 0.01 for each variable), while the ASA group was significantly
associated with absorption and depersonalisation (p < 0.01 for each variable).
Depersonalisation partially mediated the effect between CSA and PLEs, whereas the
relationship between ASA and PLEs was fully mediated via depersonalisation. The
findings are consistent with, and complement, models implicating depersonalisation as
a unique mechanism in the pathways between sexually based victimisation and PLEs.
© 2021 The Authors. Child Abuse Review published by Association of Child Protection
Professionals and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Description
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Keywords
trauma, research, United Kingdom, International Resources, dissociation, psychosis, psychotic-like experiences
Citation
O'Neill, T., Maguire, A., & Shevlin, M. (2021). Sexual Trauma in Childhood and Adulthood as Predictors of Psychotic‐like Experiences: The Mediating Role of Dissociation. Child Abuse Review.