Childhood trauma associated with psychotic-like experiences among people living with HIV: The chain mediation effect of stigma and resilience

Abstract

BackgroundPrevious research established the associations between childhood trauma and psychosis, but the effects of childhood trauma on psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) among people living with HIV (PLWH) and the potential mediation mechanisms in these associations remain unclear. ObjectiveThis study aimed to investigate the effects of childhood trauma on PLEs, as well as the chain mediation roles of stigma and resilience in this relationship. Furthermore, we explored whether the aforementioned associations differed when hallucinatory experiences (HEs) and delusional experiences (DEs) were separately modeled. Participants and settingThe sample included 333 outpatients participants (95.2 % males, Mage = 28.24 ± 7.12) living with HIV recruited from Hunan Province, China; and data were collected with a cross-sectional survey. MethodThe hypothesized chain mediation models were examined using SPSS PROCESS macro 3.3 software. ResultsVarious influencing mechanisms of childhood trauma on HEs and DEs were examined in this study. Our results showed that, (a) childhood trauma directly exerted negative effect on HEs, while the chain mediation effect of stigma and resilience were not statistically significant. Conversely, (b) childhood trauma exerted no direct influence on DEs but rather through the chain mediation effect of stigma and resilience. ConclusionsThe identification of two different routes between that childhood trauma can have on HEs and DEs highlighted the importance of tailored prevention and intervention among PLWH with a history of childhood trauma.