Grennan, Michelle (5/15) The role of mentalization in the relationship between trauma severity and symptomatology following circumscribed and complex traumatic experience (Nicholas Papouchis, Ph.D.; Sara Chiara Haden, Ph.D.; Kevin B. Meehan, Ph.D.)
The purpose of this study was to examine the role of mentalization as a mediator between traumatic experience (circumscribed or complex) and the severity of the three symptoms of simple posttraumatic stress disorder (SPTSD; APA, 2000) (avoidance, hyperarousal, and re-experiencing), as well as the severity of complex posttraumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) symptomatology. CPTSD is a disorder proposed to arise from repeated interpersonal trauma, and involves dissociation, somatization, affective dysregulation, relational and identity disturbance, and vulnerability to self-harm or repeated victimization. Interpersonal difficulties and borderline pathology were also examined as possible post-traumatic pathology. It was hypothesized that poor mentalizing abilities (reflective functioning, RF) contribute to the severity of symptoms of SPTSD and CPTSD, as well as to interpersonal difficulties, as it mediates the impact of severity of both circumscribed and complex trauma. The sample consisted of 91 trauma survivors, classified as either circumscribed trauma survivors or complex trauma survivors on the basis of their trauma history. While RF failed to demonstrate a mediating effect in either the circumscribed or complex trauma group, RF demonstrated negative correlations with interpersonal problems in both groups, and with borderline symptoms in the circumscribed trauma group only. These relationships are discussed, as is the unexpected finding that the two trauma groups differed only on severity of trauma, and not on symptom severity, suggesting that categorizing groups based on circumscribed or complex trauma histories is less clear cut than anticipated.
