Zhang Xinying, Luo Lizhu, Hu Jiehui, Gao Zhao, Gao Shan
School of Foreign Languages, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Lab for NeuroInformation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
J Child Adolesc Trauma. 2022 Feb 15;15(3):893-898. doi: 10.1007/s40653-021-00429-y. eCollection 2022 Sep.
Childhood trauma has been shown to contribute to low self-concept, potentially affecting trauma survivors' perception of social evaluations from others. However, there is little evidence for the association between traumatic experience in childhood and adult processing of evaluative verbal cues related to self. Therefore, the present study aimed to address whether and how cognitive and affective responses to self-referential praise and criticism would vary with different forms of childhood trauma. We engaged undergraduates and postgraduates in completing the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) and an evaluation task in which participants rated self-related praising and criticizing sentences for pleasantness and truthfulness. These ratings and CTQ scores were subjected to correlation and regression analyses. Positive correlations were found between the pleasantness ratings for criticism and the scores of the CTQ full scale ( = .314, = 0.0011) and two subscales for physical abuse ( = .347, = 0.0004) and physical neglect ( = .335, = 0.0005), indicating that higher scores in the scales were associated with reduced unpleasantness for self-related criticism. The regression analysis further revealed that 14.2% variances of emotional response to criticism could be explained by experience in physical abuse ( = .452, = .022) and physical neglect ( = .387, = .027). These findings suggest that childhood exposure to traumatic experience, particularly physical abuse and neglect, leads to attenuated emotional responses to self-referential criticism possibly via the mediation of self-concept.
童年创伤已被证明会导致自我概念低下，这可能会影响创伤幸存者对他人社会评价的认知。然而，几乎没有证据表明童年时期的创伤经历与成年人对与自我相关的评价性言语线索的处理之间存在关联。因此，本研究旨在探讨对自我参照的赞扬和批评的认知及情感反应是否会因童年创伤的不同形式而有所不同，以及如何不同。我们让本科生和研究生完成童年创伤问卷（CTQ）以及一项评价任务，在该任务中，参与者对与自我相关的赞扬和批评语句的愉悦度和真实性进行评分。对这些评分和CTQ分数进行了相关性和回归分析。发现批评的愉悦度评分与CTQ全量表得分（r = 0.314，p = 0.0011）以及身体虐待（r = 0.347，p = 0.0004）和身体忽视（r = 0.335，p = 0.0005）两个子量表得分呈正相关，这表明量表得分越高，与自我相关批评的不愉快程度降低相关。回归分析进一步表明，对批评的情绪反应的14.2%的方差可以由身体虐待经历（β = 0.452，p = 0.022）和身体忽视经历（β = 0.387，p = 0.027）来解释。这些发现表明，童年时期遭受创伤经历，尤其是身体虐待和忽视，可能通过自我概念的中介作用导致对自我参照批评的情绪反应减弱。
