NCJ Number
248083
Journal
Child Abuse and Neglect Volume: 38 Issue: 8 Dated: August 2014 Pages: 1313-1319
Date Published
August 2014
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This Korean study had two objectives, i.e., to determine whether childhood abuse predicts adverse mental disorder symptom complexity and to determine whether emotion regulation difficulties mediate the relationship between childhood abuse and symptom complexity.
Abstract
The study found that childhood physical and emotional abuse is significantly related to both emotion regulation difficulties and symptom complexity, even after controlling for the presence of adulthood trauma. In addition, emotion regulation difficulties partially mediated the relationship between childhood abuse and symptom complexity. Study participants were 162 adult outpatients at a clinic in the Department of Psychiatry at a major teaching medical hospital in Seoul. In order to be included in the study, individuals could not have psychotic symptoms; could not have disorders with the potential of having psychotic symptoms; and did not evidence organic brain dysfunction or other medical conditions. Participants were administered the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory - 2 (MMPI-2), which can measure not only symptoms of affective or relational dysfunction but more comprehensive psychiatric symptoms and personality-related issues, thus assisting in evaluating symptom complexity. Participants were also administered the Korean Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, the Life Events Checklist, and the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale. 1 table, 1 figure, and 38 references