Childhood Trauma and Active Mental Processes: Dissociation and Metacognition Influence Control of Negative Thoughts

Abstract

Among trauma survivors, efforts to control distressing thoughts may be linked with dissociation. We examined the hypothesis that dissociation was related to metacognitive need to control thoughts (NCT); and explored dissociation and NCT as mediators between trauma and thought control techniques in a sample of college students. Dissociation was positively related to NCT and to childhood betrayal trauma (abuse by someone close to the victim). Dissociation and NCT mediated the relationship between childhood betrayal trauma and strategies used to control negative thoughts. Overall, childhood betrayal trauma was associated with NCT and with the use of active thought control methods such as reappraisal and worry, which require focusing directly on the thought; dissociation mediates this relationship. Therapeutic approaches that enhance awareness for cognitive and emotional experiences may be helpful for dissociative trauma survivors

Trauma and memory.

“…Although they report that they cannot remember information explicitly and that there are amnesic barriers among identities, information often does transfer (Kong, Allen, & Glisky, 2008). Unexpected transfer of information may arise from active processing via reappraisal, which has been shown to be associated with childhood trauma and adult dissociation (Barlow & Goldsmith, 2014).…”

“…In PTSD and other conditions, trauma survivors face a memory disruption that seems to involve excessive remembering, rather than forgetting (see Chapter 10, this volume). Intrusions of unwanted or traumatic memories have been studied in PTSD (Amstadter & Vernon, 2006), obsessive-compulsive disorder (Najmi et al, 2010), and nonclinical (Barlow & Goldsmith, 2014) samples. Intrusive memories in PTSD may be due to inhibitory deficits in brain systems that suppress unwanted memories (Catarino et al, 2015) and to different attentional focus compared with trauma survivors without PTSD (Brewin, 2014).…”