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    Adverse and benevolent childhood experiences in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Complex PTSD (CPTSD): implications for trauma-focused therapies


    Karatzias, Thanos, Shevlin, Mark, Fyvie, Claire, Grandison, Graeme, Garozi, Maria, Latham, Emma, Sinclair, Michael, Ho, Grace Wing Ka, McAnee, Grainne, Ford, Julian D. and Hyland, Philip (2020) Adverse and benevolent childhood experiences in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Complex PTSD (CPTSD): implications for trauma-focused therapies. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 11 (1). p. 173599. ISSN 2000-8066

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    Abstract

    Background: There is very little work on the role of positive or benevolent childhood experiences and how such events might offer protection from the insidious effects of adverse experiences in childhood or later in life. Objectives: We set out to test, using latent variable modelling, whether adverse and benevolent childhood experiences could be best described as a single continuum or two correlated constructs. We also modelled the relationship between adverse and benevolent childhood experiences and ICD-11 PTSD and Complex PTSD (CPTSD) symptoms and explored if these associations were indirect via psychological trauma. Methods: Data were collected from a trauma-exposed sample (N = 275) attending a specialist trauma care centre in the UK. Participants completed measures of childhood adverse and benevolent experiences, traumatic exposure, and PTSD and CPTSD symptoms. Results: Findings suggested that adverse childhood experiences operate only indirectly on PTSD and CPTSD symptoms through lifetime trauma exposure, and with a stronger effect for PTSD. Benevolent childhood experiences directly predicted only CPTSD symptoms. Conclusions: Benevolent and traumatic experiences seem to form unique associations with PTSD and CPTSD symptoms. Future research is needed to explore how benevolent experiences can be integrated within existing psychological interventions to maximise recovery from traumatic stress.
    Item Type: Article
    Additional Information: This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Cite asa: Karatzias T, Shevlin M, Fyvie C, Grandison G, Garozi M, Latham E, Sinclair M, Ho GWK, McAnee G, Ford JD, Hyland P. Adverse and benevolent childhood experiences in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Complex PTSD (CPTSD): implications for trauma-focused therapies. Eur J Psychotraumatol. 2020 Aug 11;11(1):1793599. doi: 10.1080/20008198.2020.1793599. PMID: 33029328; PMCID: PMC7473238.
    Keywords: CPTSD; PTSD; adverse experiences; benevolent experiences;
    Academic Unit: Assisting Living & Learning,ALL institute
    Faculty of Science and Engineering > Psychology
    Item ID: 15134
    Identification Number: 10.1080/20008198.2020.1793599
    Depositing User: Philip Hyland
    Date Deposited: 15 Dec 2021 16:23
    Journal or Publication Title: European Journal of Psychotraumatology
    Publisher: Taylor & Francis Open
    Refereed: Yes
    Related URLs:
    URI: https://mu.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/15134
    Use Licence: This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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