Adolescents’ Dissociative Experiences: the Moderating Role of Type of Trauma and Attachment Style

“I feel like I do not exist:” A study of dissociative experiences among war-traumatized refugee youth.

“…Narratives of negative parental experiences, including early separation, feelings of guilt, neglect, and abuse were more frequent among m- and h-d, whereas the l-d group was characterized by positive caring family narratives, even if there were separations. There were no differences on dissociation scores between those arriving unaccompanied and those not, which suggests that dissociation is related to experiences of abuse and abandonment and insecure attachment interacting with PTEs (Gušić, Cardeña, Bengtsson, & Søndergaard, 2016b). Our finding that the h-d group reported very few current peer relationships, which to our knowledge has not been mentioned in the literature previously, suggests a tendency to not engage with or trust in others, and difficulties in maintaining relationships, perhaps due to identity fluctuation, low self-esteem, and emotional lack of control, and is consistent with the comorbidity between avoidant personality disorder and the dissociative disorders (Cardeña & Spiegel, 1996).…”

The path to dissociative experiences: A direct comparison of different etiological models

“…It is dated back to Pierre Janet, who posited that overwhelming emotion could cause dissociation in predisposed individuals (van der Hart & Horst, 1989). This theory has since been expanded to include different types of traumatic experiences which may interact with genetic predisposition or attachment styles (e.g., Gušić et al, 2016; Nijenhuis & van der Hart, 2011; Şar et al, 2017; Steele et al, 2005). Indeed, a broad research literature shows that dissociation is significantly correlated with childhood trauma in both clinical and non‐clinical samples, in objectively‐corroborated trauma studies, and in different cultures (e.g., Brand & Frewen, 2017; Dalenberg et al, 2012; Laor et al, 2002; Şar, 2017).…”

‘Discuss it with your legal guardian’: Challenges in practising care for young unaccompanied refugee minors

“…Lerner, 2012) and especially the stage of identity formation (e.g., Fazel, 2015), or that such theory is implicit in the understanding (e.g., Bengtson & Ruud, 2012, p. 186). A second source is attachment theory in which the significance of secure attachment bonds, and the detrimental effects in the lack thereof, is underlined (e.g., Woodcock, 2000) and related to development of mental health problems (e.g., Gušić, Cardeña, Bengtsson, & Søndergaard, 2016;Morina, Schnyder, Schick, Nickerson, & Bryant, 2016). A third focus seems to be grounded in a developmental psychopathological understanding (see Sroufe & Rutter, 1984) and considers, for example, the consequences of young persons' high levels of stress in relation to their neuropsychological/endocrinological development (Sønsterudbråten et al, 2018), and the transactional pathways towards mental health problems (Sierau, Glaesmer, Klucken, & Stalder, 2019).…”