ABSTRACT

This Australian study explores a person’s self-reported exposure to childhood abuse to identify the characteristics that are predictive of clinical levels of dissociation in adulthood. The final sample comprised 303 participants, including 26 inpatients and outpatients (24 females and two males) receiving treatment for a dissociative disorder (DD), and 277 university participants, including 220 controls (186 females, 34 males), 31 with elevated levels of dissociation consistent with a DD or posttraumatic stress disorder (27 females and four males), and 26 with clinical levels of dissociation (20 females and six males). The findings demonstrate clinical levels of dissociation and DDs occur in individuals reporting a history of childhood abuse, particularly sexual abuse and experiences that are potentially life-threatening to a child, such as choking, smothering, and physical injury that breaks bones or teeth, or that compromise the child’s survival needs, including threats of abandonment and deprivation of basic needs. Females who disclosed being sexual abused in addition to being choked or smothered had a 106-fold risk of clinical levels of dissociation. As expected, self-reported amnesia was prevalent in the dissociative groups. Yet, even in the control group, one-third of those disclosing sexual abuse reported an unclear memory of it. Strong similarities in abuse experiences were found between the clinical sample and those in the university sample with clinical levels of dissociation (which is unlikely to have previously been diagnosed). The dissociative groups reported higher rates of corroboration of their abusive experiences. The findings support the traumatic etiology of dissociation.

摘要

这项澳大利亚研究探讨了一个人自我报告的童年虐待经历，以确定可预测成年期临床分离水平的特征。最终样本包括 303 名参与者，包括 26 名接受分离性障碍 (DD) 治疗的住院和门诊患者（24 名女性和 2 名男性），以及 277 名大学参与者，包括 220 名对照组（186 名女性，34 名男性），31 名患有与 DD 或创伤后应激障碍（27 名女性和 4 名男性）一致的分离，以及 26 种符合临床分离水平的分离（20 名女性和 6 名男性）。研究结果表明，在报告儿童期虐待史，特别是性虐待和可能危及儿童生命的经历的个体中，会出现临床分离和 DDs 水平，例如窒息、窒息和骨折或牙齿折断的身体伤害，或危及儿童的生存需要，包括被遗弃和剥夺基本需要的威胁。除了被窒息或窒息外，还披露被性虐待的女性有 106 倍的临床分离风险。正如预期的那样，自我报告的健忘症在分离性群体中很普遍。然而，即使在对照组中，也有三分之一的披露性虐待的人报告说对它的记忆不清楚。在临床样本和具有临床分离水平（以前不太可能被诊断出）的大学样本之间发现了滥用经历的强烈相似性。分离性群体报告称，他们的虐待经历得到证实的比率更高。