Can Dissociation Mediate the Relationship between Emotional Dysregulation and Intelligence? An Empirical Study Involving Adolescents with and without Complex Trauma Histories

Stefania Cristofanelli (), Giorgia Baccini, Eleonora Centonze, Alessandra Colombesi, Marina Cariello and Laura Ferro
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Stefania Cristofanelli: Department of Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Valle d’Aosta, 11100 Aosta, Italy
Giorgia Baccini: TIARÉ, Association for Mental Health, 10125 Turin, Italy
Eleonora Centonze: Studio Associato RiPsi, 20129 Milan, Italy
Alessandra Colombesi: TIARÉ, Association for Mental Health, 10125 Turin, Italy
Marina Cariello: TIARÉ, Association for Mental Health, 10125 Turin, Italy
Laura Ferro: Department of Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Valle d’Aosta, 11100 Aosta, Italy

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 3, 1-17

Abstract: The main aim of the study was to map the psychological functioning of individuals with adverse childhood experiences, with the objective to characterize developmental trajectories. Specifically, we investigated the relations among three of the seven domains of impairment in children and adolescents who had been exposed to complex trauma. To this end, we tested a mediation model with emotional dysregulation as the independent variable, intelligence as the dependent variable, and dissociation as the mediator. The research sample was composed of 64 participants (10–19 years old); 31 adolescents formed the clinical group and 33 the non-clinical group; for the clinical group, we recruited adolescents who were residents of therapeutic communities and had a history of complex trauma. Both groups completed the Difficulties in emotion regulation scale (DERS), Adolescent dissociative experience scale (A-DES), Trauma symptom checklist for children (TSCC), and Wechsler scales. The data analysis yielded significant results for the control group only. We suggest that healthy adolescents adopt a non-pathological dissociative cognitive style in response to increased emotional dysregulation, thus explaining their enhanced cognitive performance.

Keywords: complex trauma; emotional dysregulation; dissociation; intelligence; adolescence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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