Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
J Interpers Violence. 2022 Sep;37(17-18):NP16302-NP16326. doi: 10.1177/08862605211021968. Epub 2021 Jun 4.
The COVID-19 pandemic may be experienced as traumatogenic and may fuel or exacerbate psychological distress and trauma-related symptoms. Based on trauma research, one might expect that survivors of childhood abuse would be susceptible to these negative outcomes during the pandemic, and that among this population a stronger relation between emotion regulation difficulties and symptomatology would be found. Aiming to explore these suppositions, an online survey was conducted among 710 Israeli adults. Of them, 370 were childhood abuse survivors. A history of childhood abuse, COVID-19-related stressors, overall psychological distress, and peritraumatic stress symptoms during the pandemic were assessed via self-report measures. Participants with a history of childhood abuse had elevated overall psychological distress as well as peritraumatic stress symptoms during the pandemic, compared to nonabused participants, above and beyond demographic characteristics and COVID-19-related stressors. Emotion regulation difficulties were related to elevated psychological distress and peritraumatic stress symptoms among both childhood abuse survivors and nonabused participants. Nonetheless, a history of childhood abuse moderated the relations between the emotion regulation difficulty of being unable to engage in goal-directed behaviors when distressed (on one hand) and mental outcomes (on the other): Although the associations between inability to engage in goal-directed behaviors, overall psychological distress, and peritraumatic stress symptoms were nonsignificant among nonabused participants, they were significant among childhood abuse survivors. The current findings suggest that a history of childhood abuse might be a risk factor for distress in the face of COVID-19, and that childhood abuse survivors would benefit from clinical interventions that promote emotion regulation skills during this ongoing global health crisis.
新型冠状病毒肺炎大流行可能被体验为创伤性事件，并可能加剧或引发心理困扰和与创伤相关的症状。基于创伤研究，人们可能会预期儿童期虐待幸存者在大流行期间容易受到这些负面结果的影响，并且在这一人群中，情绪调节困难与症状之间的关系会更强。为了探讨这些假设，对 710 名以色列成年人进行了在线调查。其中 370 人为儿童期虐待幸存者。通过自我报告的方式评估了儿童期虐待史、与新冠病毒相关的压力源、总体心理困扰和大流行期间的创伤后应激症状。与未受虐待的参与者相比，有儿童期虐待史的参与者总体心理困扰和大流行期间的创伤后应激症状更高，这超出了人口统计学特征和与新冠病毒相关的压力源的影响。情绪调节困难与儿童期虐待幸存者和未受虐待的参与者的心理困扰和创伤后应激症状升高有关。尽管在未受虐待的参与者中，当感到痛苦时无法进行目标导向行为（一方面）和心理结果（另一方面）之间的情绪调节困难与无法进行目标导向行为、总体心理困扰和创伤后应激症状之间的关联没有统计学意义，但在儿童期虐待幸存者中这些关联具有统计学意义。当前的研究结果表明，儿童期虐待史可能是面对新冠病毒时出现困扰的一个风险因素，并且在这场持续的全球健康危机中，儿童期虐待幸存者将受益于促进情绪调节技能的临床干预。
