Turkish Journal of Psychiatry

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The Relationship Between Childhood Traumas, Identity Development, Difficulties in Emotion Regulation and Psychopathology Çiğdem DEREBOY, Esra ŞAHİN DEMİRKAPI, Mehmet ŞAKİROĞLU,Cennet ŞAFAK ÖZTÜRK 2018 29(4): 269-278
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Objective: The present study aimed to explore the relationship between
traumatic experiences, difficulties in emotion regulation, identity confusion and
psychopathology.
Method: Six hundred and thirty five university students volunteered to
participate to the first step of the study (460 (72.4%) females and 175 (27.6%)
males). The mean age was 20.57 (17-29) years. The participants who scored
above the group mean (X=44) on the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-
Short Form (CTQ-SF) were invited for a diagnostic interview. A total of 69
participants, consisting of 46 females (66.7%) and 23 males (33.3%), with a
mean group age of 20.93 (17-29) years, were included in the second step of
the study. All participants completed the General Information Form, the CTQSF,
the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), the Sense of Identity
Assessment Form (SIAF), SCID-I and SCID II.
Results: Prevalence of childhood traumas in the study group was 31.3%.
Participants who came from low income groups, who were using psychotropic
medications, who had family or personal history of self harm behaviour
and who attempted suicide had significantly higher CTQ-SF scores.
The SIAF scores of the subgroup diagnosed with psychiatric disorders were
significantly higher than those of the undiagnosed. However, they did not differ
with respect to their CTQ-SF and DERS scores. Results showed that difficulties
in emotion regulation played a partial mediating role in the association of
childhood traumatic events, in particular emotional abuse, with identity
confusion.
Conclusion: The present study demonstrated that childhood traumatic events
not only have effects on emotion regulation and the development of sense of
identity, but also may be associated with self harm behaviours in the later stages
of life. For prevention studies, enhancing parenting skills and raising community
awareness to this issue would be beneficial.