Dissociation as an outcome of childhood trauma, adult personality and adjustment

This study aimed to investigate dissociation, measured as a continuous dimension from normal experiences through to the severe symptoms characteristic of dissociative identity disorder, by modelling dissociation as an outcome of childhood trauma, adult personality and adjustment. A questionnaire package was completed by a sample of 279 adults (47 males and 231 females). Participants completed the Dissociative Experiences Scale II, the NEO Five Factor Inventory, the Resilience Scale, the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, and the Creative Experiences Questionnaire. Structural equation analyses using AMOS generated a model that fit the data well. Inspection of significant paths in the model found, consistent with theory and existing research, that childhood trauma had a direct link to dissociation. A benefit of the modelling approach was the capacity to identify a complex pattern of relationships by which personality (neuroticism and agreeableness) and adjustment (fantasy proneness and resilience) mediated the relationship between childhood trauma and dissociation. (Author abstract, edited)