Depression, Anxiety, Alexithymia and Childhood Psychological Traumas as Predictors of Dissociative Experiences in Lesbian Gay and Bisexual Individuals
Abstract
Objectives: The study aimed to investigate the relationship between depression, anxiety, alexithymia, childhood psychological trauma, and dissociative experiences.
Method: The study was conducted with 54 Lesbian Gay and Bisexual Individuals[LGB] volunteering participants aged from 18 to 36 years old, who were members of a closed group on Facebook, by the help of Lesbian Gay and Bisexual individuals applying to Private Corlu Reyap Hospital due to various psychiatric complaints. The participants were administered a Demographic Information Form, Beck Depression Inventory, Beck Anxiety Scale, Toronto Alexithymia Scale, Childhood Psychological Traumas Scale, and Dissociative Experiences Scale . Pearson Correlation analysis was used in order to evaluate the study data.
Results: Significant and positive correlations of anxiety with the depressive symptoms, childhood traumas, dissociation, and difficulty in identifying feelings, which is a subdimension of alexithymia, were reached. The depressive symptoms were positively and significantly correlated with childhood trauma, dissociation, and difficulty in identifying feelings, which is a subdimension of alexithymia; however, a negative and significant correlation between the depressive symptoms and externally-oriented thinking was determined. Negative significant correlations of alexithymia were found with emotional neglect, which is a subdimension of childhood trauma, as well as positive significant correlations of alexithymia with dissociation. The correlation between childhood trauma and the difficulty in identifying feelings, which is one of the subdimensions of alexithymia was determined to be positive; whereas, the correlation between externally-oriented thinking and the difficulty in expressing emotions was determined to be negative. Lastly, there was a significant and positive correlation of dissociation with externally-oriented thinking, which is a subdimension of alexithymia, and a significant and positive correlation between dissociation and physical abuse, which is a subdimension of childhood trauma.
Discussion: The results of the study and its significance were discussed along with its limitations in the light of the related information in the literature and emerging ideas were suggested for future studies.
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.52155/ijpsat.v30.1.3815
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