The Mechanism Of Childhood Trauma On Adult Attachment In College Students And Group Expressive Psychotherapy Intervention

With the rapid spread of internet information,domestic violence,childhood abuse and other malignant events are constantly disclosed.The high incidence of childhood trauma has sparked public concerns.The impact of childhood trauma on personal development cannot be ignored,especially for college students in their youth who need to develop a sense of intimacy.Therefore,this study intends to investigate into the current situation of undergraduates' childhood traumatic experiences.Afterwards,paying attention to the mechanism of childhood traumatic experiences' influence on adult attachment and discovering whether expressive psychotherapy intervention can reduce the influence of childhood traumatic experience.This study is divided into three parts in this paper:(1)Study 1 explored the current situation of college students' childhood trauma and verified the intergenerational effects of childhood trauma on their primary caregivers.Using the questionnaire survey method,476 students were tested with the childhood trauma experience scale to present the current situation of college students' childhood trauma experience.Based on the demographic questionnaire,the study also explored whether demographic factors had an impact on childhood trauma experience.The data of 118 college students and their primary caregivers on childhood trauma were analyzed by correlation analysis and multiple linear regression analysis to explore the intergenerational effects of childhood trauma.The results are listed as follows in this study:① In terms of neglect,63%of college students reported emotional neglect in childhood,while 48%reported physical neglect.The report rate of emotional abuse was higher in the dimension of abuse,reaching 31%.Physical abuse and sexual abuse were 10%and 8%respectively.In terms of demographic variables,gender,only-child status,parental marriage type and parental education level have an impact on college students' childhood trauma scores.There was a significant correlation between college students' childhood trauma scores and their primary caregivers' childhood trauma scores,that is,the intergenerational influence of childhood trauma experiences can be proved.② There is a significant correlation between college students' childhood trauma scores and their primary caregivers' childhood trauma scores,that is,the intergenerational influence of childhood trauma experiences can be proved.In addition to sexual abuse and emotional neglect,other traumatic experiences of parents can lead to the same type of trauma in their children from whom the intergenerational effects could be revealed and the physical abuse was the most obvious.(2)Study 2 explored the mechanism of childhood trauma on adult attachment.Using questionnaire survey,137 college students were tested with childhood trauma experience scale,self-differentiation scale and adult attachment scale.The mediating effect test,method of Wen,was used to explore whether self-differentiation plays a mediating role between childhood traumatic experience and adult attachment.The results are listed as follows in this paper:①There was a significant correlation between the total score of childhood trauma,self-differentiation and adult attachment.Childhood trauma was negatively correlated with the level of self-differentiation,with the most obvious effects caused by physical neglect,sexual abuse and emotional abuse.Childhood trauma was positively correlated with attachment anxiety and negatively correlated with attachment closeness.Among them,the body neglect,sexual abuse are caused by the most conspicuous impact.Self-differentiation was positively correlated with attachment closeness and negatively correlated with attachment anxiety.Among them,the function of self-position,emotional cut-off and fusion with others are more significant.②Self-differentiation plays a partial mediating role in childhood traumatic experience,attachment intimacy and attachment anxiety,with the mediating effects of 39.2%and 33.6%respectively.According to the results of the regression analysis,the self-position of self-differentiation,and dimensions of Fusion with Others have significant influence on the quality of adult attachment.(3)Study 3 used group expressive psychotherapy(Man-puppet Psychological Play Therapy,MPPT)to intervene in the negative effects of college students' childhood trauma experience.A combination of quantitative and qualitative research was used to explore such effects.Based on the previous data,40 high score students with childhood trauma were selected.The subjects were randomly divided into the intervention group and the control group,with 20 in each group.Members of the intervention group received group expressive psychotherapy intervention once a week for a total of 8 times,while the control group did not carry out any intervention.The independent variables were group(intervention and control group)and pre-test and post-test.The quantitative dependent variables were the scores of self-differentiation,adult attachment and self-efficacy questionnaire.When it comes to qualitative part,semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 members of the intervention group who agreed to participate in the investigation.Information of interviews were collected and coded with Nvivo11.0 qualitative analysis software.①The results of post-intervention test verified that group MPPT had an improvement on the negative effects caused by childhood trauma.It can significantly improve the level of self-differentiation,adult attachment quality and self-efficacy.The score of affective severance increased most obviously in self differentiation,followed by self-position,emotional response and self-integration.Attachment closeness was significantly increased and attachment anxiety significantly decreased in adult attachment quality.②The coding results showed that the participants improved and grew after MPPT intervention from the three core levels of cognition,emotion and behavior,including positive resources,reasonable cognition,emotional catharsis,positive emotion,prosocial behavior,coping style,interpersonal communication and somatic symptoms.