College students stay in the early adult stage of personality development. The goal of their psychological development at this stage is to gain "closeness" and avoid "loneliness". It's often accomplished through attachment behaviors. However, individuals who have experienced childhood trauma are affected in some way in their attachment relationships. They show different post-traumatic reactions in adulthood including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and post-traumatic growth (PTG). Hurts in relationships often need to be healed through relationships. For college students who have experienced childhood trauma in relationships, how to use attachment relationships to both repair childhood post-traumatic stress reactions and accomplish the goal of personality development at this stage is one of the major issues they face. Therefore, based on trauma theory and attachment theory, this study uses explanatory mixed method design of a mixed research method of quantitative and qualitative research to conduct the following studies.
Study 1:This study used Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form (CTQ一SF), PTSD Checklist-Civilian Version (PLC-C), Post-Traumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI) and Adult Attachment Scale (AAS) to examine the role of attachment in the effects of childhood trauma on PTSD and PTG among 1421 college students in 5 universities in Jiangxi Province as subjects. Using descriptive Statistics, correlation analysis, path analysis and Bootstrap test for mediating effects, the results highlighted that there were significant differences between PTSD positive symptom group and negative symptom group in terms of different attachment types. There were significant differences between PTG high and low subgroups in terms of different attachment types. Childhood trauma and attachment were associated with PTSD and PTG. Childhood trauma directly positively predicted PTSD and directly negatively predicted PTG. Furthermore, childhood trauma negatively predicted PTSD and positively predicted PTG under the mediation of closeness-dependence, and also positively predicted PTSD and negatively predicted PTG under the mediation of attachment anxiety. The parallel multiple mediation model of childhood trauma, attachment, PTSD and PTG was constructed.
Study 2: A qualitative research method was used to explore the psychological experiences and journeys of 6 college students after childhood trauma using semi structured interviews in depth. Transcripts were analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to identify recurrent themes. The results proposed four main themes which were characteristics of childhood trauma, effects on the self, effects on relationships with others and factors influencing post-traumatic reactions. It indicated that childhood trauma was characterized by coexistence, unconsciousness, and specificity. The impact on the self was on a person's self-image (whether the self is worthy of love and support), and the impact on relationships with others was on others' image (whether others are trustworthy, reliable, and acceptable). Internal factors of individuals and external environmental factors influenced childhood post-traumatic reactions.
In summary, the following conclusions were drawn from this study.
Firstly, childhood trauma has a partially influence on PTSD and PTG among college students, and attachment plays a partly mediating role among them.
Secondly, in clinical interventions, college students who have experienced childhood trauma can be provided with a corrective attachment experience to reduce their PTSD levels and increase their PTG levels.
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