Could Family Well-Being Moderate The Relationship Between Adverse Childhood Experiences And Somatoform Dissociation? A Preliminary Investigation

Cherry T.Y. Cheung, Clement Man-Him Cheng, Vincent Wan Ping Lee*, Stanley Kam Ki Lam, Kyle Langjie He, Henry Wai-Hang Ling

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

    6 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    The impacts of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been well documented. One possible consequence of ACEs is dissociation, which is a major feature of post-traumatic psychopathology and is also associated with considerable impairment and health care costs. Although ACEs are known to be associated with both psychoform and somatoform dissociation, much less is known about the mechanisms behind this relationship. Little is known about whether social and interpersonal factors such as family environments would moderate the relationship between ACEs and somatoform dissociation. This paper discusses the importance of having a positive and healthy family environment in trauma recovery. We then report the findings of a preliminary study in which we examined whether the association between ACEs and somatoform dissociation would be moderated by family well-being in a convenience sample of Hong Kong adults (N = 359). The number of ACEs was positively associated with somatoform dissociative symptoms, but this association was moderated by the level of family well-being. The number of ACEs was associated with somatoform dissociation only when the family well-being scores were low. These moderating effects were medium. The findings point to the potential importance of using family education and intervention programs to prevent and treat trauma-related dissociative symptoms, but further investigation is needed.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)153-167
    Number of pages15
    JournalJournal of Trauma and Dissociation
    Volume25
    Issue number2
    Early online date9 Jul 2023
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Mar 2024

    Scopus Subject Areas

    • Psychiatry and Mental health
    • Clinical Psychology

    User-Defined Keywords

    • Childhood adversities
    • family interventions
    • mental health
    • somatoform dissociation
    • trauma

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