Abstract
Background: Current literature suggests a tenuous link among childhood trauma, personality organization, adult attachment, and emotional functioning in various psychiatric disorders. However, empirical research focusing on the interaction of these concepts is sparse. Therefore, this study intends to investigate the influence of personality organization and attachment dimensions on the relationship between childhood maltreatment and emotional functioning in adult life. To assess emotional functioning, we adopted the Affective Neuroscience model of primary emotions, comprising SEEKING, FEAR, ANGER, SADNESS, CARE, and PLAY.Methods: The total sample consisted of 616 nonclinical adults (Age: M = 30; SD = 9.53; 61.9% female). Path analysis was applied to investigate interactions among childhood trauma, personality organization, adult attachment, and primary emotion dispositions.Results: The findings suggest that childhood trauma significantly predicted deficits in personality organization and insecure attachment (all p < 0.001). Furthermore, a reduced level of personality organization was significantly associated with increased ANGER (p < 0.001), whereas adult attachment substantially predicted primary emotion dispositions in general. Moreover, the results indicate significant mediational effects of personality organization and attachment dimensions on the relationship between childhood trauma and primary emotions (p < 0.01). The final model was able to explain 48% of the variance in SADNESS, 38% in PLAY, 35% in FEAR, 28% in CARE, 14% in ANGER, and 13% in SEEKING.Discussion: The findings contribute to the understanding of the relationship between childhood maltreatment and impaired emotional functioning in adult life. Furthermore, the importance of personality organization and attachment dimensions for emotion regulation is underlined. Consequently, the treatment of patients with childhood trauma should focus on facilitating the development of more secure attachment patterns and increased personality functioning to improve overall emotional functioning.
Highlights
There is considerable evidence linking childhood maltreatment to a wide range of adult psychopathology [1]
When computed within a single model, we find that structural deficit is significantly associated with increased PLAY and ANGER, whereas attachment dimensions are related to the measured primary emotion dispositions in general
The current study contributes to the knowledge of how childhood trauma, attachment insecurity, and deficits in personality organization influence emotional functioning
Summary
There is considerable evidence linking childhood maltreatment to a wide range of adult psychopathology [1]. Childhood trauma is linked with enhanced amygdala response to emotional cues and conflict processing as well as diminished striatal response to anticipated rewards In this context, converging results suggest that the association between childhood trauma and adult psychopathology might be mediated by disturbances in the neurobiological development related to cognitive control and emotion regulation [3,4,5]. Secondary processes are linked to the limbic system and basal ganglia These include unconscious and conditioned behavioral traits, like personality functions, object relations, and attachment patterns. Regarding the primary process foundation of personality, AN emphasizes the importance of seven neurobiologically discrete basic emotion circuits, bridging the boundary between physiological and psychological experience [7] These include SEEKING, LUST, ANGER, FEAR, SADNESS (or PANIC/ GRIEF), PLAY, and CARE. We adopted the Affective Neuroscience model of primary emotions, comprising SEEKING, FEAR, ANGER, SADNESS, CARE, and PLAY
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