Abstract
Childhood adversity is identified as any exposure to abuse, neglect or family dysfunction. Greater exposure to childhood adversity has been strongly identified with increased morbidity and mortality. The aim of this study was to examine differences in creative experiences, fantasy proneness, dispositional flow, exposure to adult traumatic events, and psychopathology (internalized shame, trait anxiety), amongst professional performing artists who experienced no childhood adversity, some adversity, or substantial adversity. This cross-section IRB approved study examined 234 professional performers (dancers, opera singers, actors, directors, musicians). Self-report measurements were included to examine the following psychological factors: adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), experience of creativity questionnaire, dispositional flow, trait anxiety, internalized shame, fantasy, and total adult and childhood traumatic events. The sample was divided into three groups based on ACE scores: 0 ACE (n = 93), 1–3 ACEs (n = 95), ≥4 ACEs (n = 42). The MANCOVA (with age and gender as covariates) results revealed no significant (p = 0.280) differences between all three ACE groups for the nine flow scales (optimal performance measurements). Performing artists with ≥4 ACEs had significantly stronger creative experiences (p = 0.006) related to distinct creative processing, absorption, and a transformational sense of self and the world. They were also more fantasy prone, shame-based, anxious, and experienced more cumulative past traumatic events (p < 0.001). Although the high ACE group experienced greater negative effects, they also endorsed positive creative performance experiences.
Highlights
“This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.”
According to the adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) study conducted by Felitti et al (1998) at Kaiser Permanente’s Department of Preventive Medicine (San Diego) and Felitti and Anda (2010) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), greater exposure to early childhood adversity is associated with multiple medical and psychiatric problems (Felitti and Anda, 2010)
The descriptive and Chi Square statistics demonstrated that performing artists experienced significantly higher rates of emotional abuse and neglect compared to the original ACE study (Felitti et al, 1998)
Summary
“This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.”. Past adult trauma has been associated with intrusive emotional mental imagery (Holmes, 2003/2004) that may compromise general performance levels and increase anxiety. Such experiences, coupled with daily psychological and social uncertainty that typifies a performance career, are related to difficulty managing components of the creative process such as effectively meeting challenging tasks and solving problems, (Mittal and Griskevicius, 2014). Most performers engage in moderate levels of fantasy, some performers are regarded as high fantasy prone individuals They are able to vividly imagine past memories and create new scenarios with full sensory and emotional details. These high fantasizers are generally well adjusted; some high fantasy prone individuals suffer greater psychopathology and experience more negative affect (Waldo and Merritt, 2000; Rauschenberger and Lynn, 2002/2003; Cuper and Lynch, 2008/2009)
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