Interplay between complex trauma, dialectical core schemas and emotional processing difficulties

Psychotherapy clients with histories of childhood abuse and complex relational trauma are ubiquitous, and have notoriously high drop-out rates. These clients have been unable to heal past emotional injuries and often have difficulty handling exposure-based therapies, which usually are not designed for attachment related problems. Successful therapy requires helping clients access and explore painful feelings in order to modify maladaptive emotions. Emotion-Focused Therapy for Trauma (EFTT) is the only trauma therapy that is based on an empirically-verified model that identifies steps in the process of resolving past relational issues. In this book, the authors plumb fifteen years of research involving clinical trials, observation and analysis of therapy sessions, as well as their own extensive clinical experience to describe precisely how EFTT works to heal complex trauma. The book is organized into two main sections: Part I describes the EFTT treatment model and the theory behind it, while Part II examines clients' progress through the four phases of treatment, each of which can be revisited in a recursive fashion. The authors focus on the typical progression, beginning with cultivating the therapeutic alliance, through modifying self-concept, resolution of attachment injuries, and termination. Throughout the text, the authors make comparisons with other treatment approaches, and provide clinical examples of different kinds of emotion and emotional processing difficulties. This book will appeal to clinicians and researchers alike and is particularly suitable for use in outpatient trauma clinics and graduate programs that emphasize service and training in empirically-supported treatments.

Emotional processing difficulties may be viewed as dysfunctional emotional states emerging from non-adequately processed emotional experience while early maladaptive schemas are experienced-based dysfunctional mental structures associated with chronic and recurrent psychological disorders. Schemas and emotional difficulties were previously associated with impairments on the regulation of psychological needs. However, clarifications about the relationships between these constructs are lacking. In a cross-sectional study, a clinical sample of 66 participants (M = 46.4, SD = 13.1) completed self-report questionnaires. Emotional processing difficulties correlated positively with schemas and negatively with the regulation of psychological needs. Disconnection and rejection, lack of autonomy and impaired limits schema domains mediated the relationship between emotional processing difficulties and psychological needs. Emotional processing difficulties may be associated with impairments on the regulation of psychological needs, due to activation of early maladaptive schemas, which, in turn, prompts symptomatology. Transtheoretical intervention regarding marker-guided interventions and phase-by-phase schema restructuring may be used to promote the regulation of psychological needs.

OBJECTIVES/SPECIFIC AIMS: Childhood obesity has become an issue of some concern worldwide. Some reviews and a recent study in adults have indicated that obesity-related inflammatory responses produce brain damage. However, studies exploring associations between inflammation and executive functions in children are overlooked. Therefore, the objective of this cross-sectional study is to determine whether difficulties in executive functions and emotional processing are associated with obesity and inflammation. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: We have recruited 12 of a total of 60 children aged 6–8 years old. They have completed the NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery and the NEPSY II Affect Recognition tests. Samples of plasma and saliva were collected to quantify inflammatory biomarkers cytokines (IL-6 and TNF-α) assay by Luminex procedure. We performed descriptive analysis and Mann-Whitney U test to compare obese Versus nonobese groups. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: Obese children have lower scores in measures of affect recognition than healthy weight children. They also showed higher median scores in both salivary and plasma IL-6 and TNF-α. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: Although no statistical differences were found among groups in either measurement, these preliminary data based on the initial recruitment suggest that children with higher body mass index may have difficulties in emotional processing. More data will be available after completing recruitment to determine if the association between obesity and affect recognition is significant and if it is mediated by inflammation.

The role of the level of personality organization in emotional processing in Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Child abuse among adolescents in China has been documented and can lead to a whole range of psychological and behavioural problems. This study examined whether male and female adolescents would differ in level of child abuse, emotional processing difficulties, alexithymia, psychological symptoms and behavioural problems, and whether the pattern of association between these variables would vary depending on gender. Eight hundred adolescents were recruited from China and completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, Emotional Processing Scale, Toronto Alexithymia Scale, General Health Questionnaire, and Prediction Test of Problem Children. Male adolescents reported significantly higher levels of emotional and physical neglect, and external oriented thinking style than female adolescents. Females reported significantly more anxiety symptoms and problems with learning than males. For males, child abuse was associated with emotional processing difficulties which were associated with alexithymia. In turn, alexithymia was associated with both psychological and behavioural problems. For females, the same association was established for predicting behavioural problems but not psychological symptoms. Male and female adolescents differed in level of child abuse, alexithymia, psychological symptoms and behavioural problems. These psychological constructs were connected in a specific pattern to trigger psychological and behavioural problems for male adolescents whereas for females, different patterns were involved.

BackgroundDifficulty in regulating emotions increases during adolescence and can be associated with psychopathology. It is thus crucial to develop tools to identify adolescents at risk of having emotional difficulties. This study aimed to investigate the reliability and validity of a brief questionnaire in a sample of Turkish adolescents.MethodsA total of 256 participants (mean age = 15.51 ± 0.85) were recruited. They completed the original form of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS-36), a brief version of DERS (DERS-16), the Barrett Impulsivity Scale (BIS-11), and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS). Psychometric properties of DERS-16 were investigated by confirmatory factor analysis, Cronbach’s alpha, and Pearson correlational analysis.ResultsA five-factor model and second-order bifactor model of DERS-16 were confirmed. Cronbach’s alpha values for the subscales varied between 0.69 and 0.88, while the reliability of the factors Difficulties in Emotional Processing and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation were 0.75 and 0.90, respectively. DERS-16 subscales were positively correlated with the BIS-11 and TAS. In addition, there were only minimal differences between the DERS-16 and DERS-36.ConclusionThe DERS-16 is a valid and reliable scale for Turkish adolescents. The fact that it has fewer items than DERS-36, but has similar reliability and validity and can be used as two factors, provides significant advantages in terms of applicability.

ObjectivesPain and fear of colonoscopy are inter-related; they make the colonoscopy experience unpleasant and impede adherence to colorectal cancer screening and prevention campaigns. According to previous research, fear and pain...

Emotional Processing Difficulties are a core construct from Emotion-Focused Therapy and a clinical target for differentiated psychotherapeutic tasks. The identification of these emotional difficulties is largely based on observation and clinical judgment. This study describes the first psychometric analysis of the Emotional Processing Difficulties Scale-Revised (EPDS-R). Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), reliability, and validity procedures were conducted in a sample of 260 participants. EPDS-R matched adequate EFA criteria (KMO = .89; Bartlett’s sphericity test p < .001), suggesting a five-dimensional structure. Cronbach Alphas ranged from .87 to .70. Convergent validity was found between EPDS-R and difficulties in emotional regulation (DERS), and concurrent validity was found in two sub-samples based on > 1.7 clinical criteria from the Brief Symptom Index (BSI). According to this preliminary psychometric study, EPDS-R may be a valid tool to assess emotional processing difficulties in the general population.

Investigation of the relationship between trauma and pain catastrophising: The roles of emotional processing and altered self-capacity

Emotional processing and panic

This study investigated whether child abuse was associated with psychiatric co-morbidity in a group of Chinese adolescents, and whether this association would be mediated by emotional processing difficulties and moderated by the severity of PTSD from other traumas in the past. Four hundred seventy-four adolescents participated in the study. They completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form, General Health Questionnaire-28, the Posttraumatic Stress Diagnostic Scale, and Emotional processing scale-25. The results showed that after adjusting for the total number of traumatic events and how long ago the most traumatic event occurred, child abuse was associated with psychiatric co-morbidity. This association was not moderated by the severity of PTSD from past traumas but mediated by emotion processing difficulties. To conclude, adolescents who experience child abuse can develop emotional processing difficulties which in turn impact on psychiatric symptoms. Experience of past trauma does not influence these psychological processes.

This study aimed to investigate differences in positive academic orientations, emotional processing difficulties, and test anxiety between high- and low-achieving college students. The sample includes four hundred students from Kafrelsheikh University. The study also aimed to detect gender differences in these variables. Measures of academic orientations, emotional processing, and test anxiety were used to collect the required data. The descriptive approach and statistical analysis were relied upon using SPSS. The study revealed statistically significant gender and achievement differences between positive academic orientations among university students in favor of high-achieving females. The study also revealed statistically significant gender and achievement differences in emotional processing difficulties in the direction of low-achieving males. In addition, significant gender and achievement differences in test anxiety were found in the direction of low-achieving females. Some implications, suggestions, and limitations were addressed.&lt;p&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt; Article visualizations:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/-counters-/soc/0307/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

This study examined the interrelationship between child abuse, emotional processing difficulties, alexithymia, and psychological symptoms with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms from past traumas adjusted among Chinese adolescents. Eight hundred adolescents completed questionnaires measuring the preceding psychological constructs. After controlling for PTSD from past trauma, structural equation modeling showed that child abuse correlated with emotional processing difficulty which correlated with alexithymia. In turn, alexithymia correlated with psychological symptom severity. To conclude, child abuse can affect psychological health among Chinese adolescents. This relationship, however, is influenced by the degree to which processing distressing emotions and getting in touch with internal feelings is avoided.

While previous research has indicated that alcohol use is associated with difficulties in emotion processing and socioemotional functioning, less is known about the effects of cannabis on these functions. The purpose of this review article is to provide the current state of knowledge on the effects of cannabis on emotion processing with regard to behavioral, physiological, and neural responses. This narrative review synthesizes previous research investigating the effects of cannabis on emotion processing across studies that have utilized a number of experimental approaches to determine both the acute and chronic effects of cannabis on emotion processing. Limitations of current research and steps for future directions are discussed. Existing research has shown that cannabis use is associated with difficulties in emotion processing, such as impairments in correctly identifying emotions and problems with emotion differentiation. Electroencephalography (EEG) studies have produced mixed findings, but have considered a number of variables, such as participant sex, and comorbid depression. In addition, while there are mixed findings for the effects of cannabis on amygdalar brain activity across functional magnetic resonance imaging studies, several studies indicate that cannabis use is linked with decreased brain response in the frontal lobe while viewing emotional stimuli. To our knowledge, this is one of the first critical review articles focused on an emerging research area of cannabis and emotion processing. Synthesizing the existing findings in this developing research field is important for future prevention and intervention studies focused on promoting healthy socioemotional functioning in cannabis users. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Emerging adulthood represents a critical stage characterized by heightened risks for anxiety, depression, and somatization symptoms development. Research has shown that difficulties in emotional identification, expression, and processing, as well as dysfunctional parenting styles, may exacerbate symptoms in emerging adults. The present study aimed at examining the interplay between mentalized affectivity (i.e., emotional identification, processing, and expression), helicopter parenting, and psychopathological risk in 913 Italian cisgender emerging adults (M = 24.34, SD = 2.81; 71.20% assigned female at birth), using network analysis. The results indicated moderate to strong associations between psychopathological symptoms, with emotional processing difficulties significantly associated with general anxiety, depression, and, to a lesser extent, somatization. Additionally, increased degrees of helicopter parenting from mothers were linked to increased psychopathology and higher emotional processing difficulties. These findings emphasize the importance of addressing the interconnection between symptoms and emotional processing to prevent and treat psychopathological risks in emerging adults. Moreover, interventions targeting intrusive and overprotecting parenting behaviors may promote well-being among emerging adults.