Factor Structure and Correlates of the Dissociative Experiences Scale in a Large Offender Sample

Ruiz, Mark A.; Poythress, Norman G.; Lilienfeld, Scott O.; Douglas, Kevin S.

doi:10.1177/1073191108315548

Cited by 35 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…In line with evidence suggesting that dissociation is a common sequela of adverse and/or traumatic life experiences, many empirical studies have demonstrated that individuals with SMIs exposed to childhood adversity (e.g. sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, bullying), experience greater dissociation compared to individuals exposed to little or no trauma . However, the relationship between childhood trauma and dissociation in individuals with SMIs remains contradictory, as some studies have found no association between the two constructs .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

The relationship between childhood adversities and dissociation in severe mental illness: a meta‐analytic review

Rafiq

Campodonico

Varese

2018

Acta Psychiatr Scand

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The relationship between childhood adversities and dissociation in severe mental illness: a meta-analytic review Rafiq S, Campodonico C, Varese F. The relationship between childhood adversities and dissociation in severe mental illness: a metaanalytic review Objective: Several studies have observed that dissociative experiences are frequently reported by individuals with severe mental illness (SMI), especially amongst patients that report a history of adverse/traumatic life experiences. This review examined the magnitude and consistency of the relationship between childhood adversity (sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, bullying, natural disasters and mass violence) and dissociation across three SMI diagnostic groups: schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and personality disorders. Method: A database search (EMBASE, PubMed and PsycINFO) identified 30 eligible empirical studies, comprising of 2199 clinical participants. Effect sizes representing the relationship between exposure to childhood adversity and dissociation were examined and integrated using a random-effects meta-analysis. Results: The results indicated that exposure to childhood trauma was associated with heightened dissociation across SMIs. Positive significant associations were also found between specific childhood adversities and dissociation, with aggregated effect sizes in the small-to-moderate range. Conclusion: These findings support calls for the routine assessment of traumatic experiences in clients with SMIs presenting with dissociative symptoms and the provision of adequate therapeutic support (e.g. trauma-focused therapies) to manage and resolve these difficulties. Summations• Small-to-moderate relationship between childhood trauma and dissociation across SMIs. • Medium relationship between childhood trauma and dissociation in schizophrenia-spectrum disorders.• All forms of childhood traumatic experiences (e.g. sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, emotional neglect, physical neglect) were found to be associated with dissociation in people diagnosed with SMI. Considerations• Only three studies were found eligible for the bipolar sample (i.e. low power); therefore, no strong conclusions can be drawn regarding the association between childhood trauma and dissociative experiences in bipolar disorder.• The relationship between childhood trauma and dissociation in SMI requires further corroboration using longitudinal designs to determine causality and directionality.• No firm conclusions can be drawn regarding which specific traumatic experience is most strongly associated with dissociation, as the studies included in the analysis were not independent (i.e. effects for sexual abuse and physical abuse estimated from the same sample of participants). 509Acta Psychiatr Scand 2018: 138: 509-525

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

The relationship between childhood adversities and dissociation in severe mental illness: a meta‐analytic review

Rafiq

Campodonico

Varese

2018

Acta Psychiatr Scand

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“…Unfortunately, studies exploring the factor structure of the DES-II yielded contrasting results, failing to provide consistent support for a specific conceptual model. Carlson and Putnam [10] provided initial evidence for a three-factor model, which was repeatedly found in some studies using exploratory (EFA) or confirmatory (CFA) factor analysis [6,[15][16][17][18][19]. However, using principal component analysis (PCA), Ray and colleagues [20] identified seven factors underlying the DES-II items.…”

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confidence: 96%

“…As a whole, the inconsistency in the DES-II factor structure across studies and samples, as well as the high degree of shared variance among the factors, have led some authors to suggest that the instrument may actually capture a unidimensional operationalization of the dissociation construct [6,8,14,26,[29][30][31]. Moreover, such contrasting results raise the possible risk of making misleading inferences about the construct of dissociation based on findings derived from the use of the original subscales reported by Carlson and Putnam [10] using the traditional Classical Test Theory (CTT) approach.…”

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confidence: 99%

Improving the psychometric properties of the dissociative experiences scale (DES-II): a Rasch validation study

et al. 2020

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Background: The Dissociative Experiences Scale-II (DES-II) is a self-report questionnaire that measures dissociative experiences such as derealization, depersonalization, absorption and amnesia. The DES-II has been prevalently used as a screening tool in patients suffering from psychotic disorders or schizophrenia. However, dissociative experiences can also be part of normal psychological life. Despite its popularity, the most problematic aspect of the DES-II is the inconsistency in its factor structure, which is probably due to the tendency to treat ordinal responses as responses on an interval scale, as it is assumed in the Classical Test Theory approach. In order to address issues related to the inconsistency of previous results, the aim of the present study was to collect new psychometric evidence to improve the properties of the DES-II using Rasch analysis, i.e. analyzing the functioning of the response scale. Methods: Data were obtained on a sample composed by 320 Italian participants (122 inmates and 198 communitydwelling individuals) and were analyzed with the Rasch model. This model allows the estimation of participants' level of dissociation, the degree of misfit of each item, the reliability of each item, and their measurement invariance. Moreover, Rasch estimation allows to determine the best response scale, in terms of response modalities number and their discriminant power. Results: Three items of the scale had strong misfit. After their deletion, the resulting scale was composed by 25 items, which had low levels of misfit and high reliability, and showed measurement invariance. Participants tended to select more often lower categories of the response scale. Conclusions: Results provided new knowledge on the DES-II structure and its psychometric properties, contributing to the understanding and measurement of the dissociation construct.

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“…Taking a closer look at the dissociation literature, one could conclude that there is a disproportion of samples recruited, with a landslide majority of studies involving clinical, community, and student samples (e.g., Evren et al, 2013;Foote, Smolin, Kaplan, Legatt, & Lipschitz, 2006; Gutiérrez Wang, Cosden, & Bernal, 2011;Maaranen, 2008;Maaranen et al, 2005;Van Dissociation in Italian and Portuguese inmates 4 IJzendoorn, 1996;Vogel, Spitzer, Barnow, Freyberger, & Grabe, 2006;Xiao et al, 2006;Yoshizumi, Murase, Murakami, & Takai, 2007), and only a handful of them addressing dissociation in offender samples (Dietrich, 2003;Lancaster, Compton, White, Bowers, & Herring, 1998; D. O. Lewis, Yeager, Swica, Pincus, & Lewis, 1997;Mitchell, 2006;Ruiz, Poythress, Liliane, & Douglas, 2008;Stefano Ciulla & Caretti, 2012;Walker, 2002).…”

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confidence: 99%

Dissociative Experiences and Psychopathology Among Inmates in Italian and Portuguese Prisons

Zavattini

Garofalo

Velotti

et al. 2015

Int J Offender Ther Comp Criminol

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The association between dissociation and psychopathological symptoms is well established, yet studies with inmates are lacking. If higher rates of dissociation and psychiatric symptoms are reported in inmate samples, it is not clear whether they represent two separate, albeit related, characteristics. We examined the association between dissociation and psychopathological symptoms among 320 Italian subjects (122 inmates and 198 community participants) and a Portuguese inmate sample ( n = 67). Then, we tested whether dissociation and psychopathology levels were higher among inmates. Both hypotheses were supported, confirming the relevance of dissociative, paranoid, and psychotic symptoms among inmates, as well as their interrelations. Notably, the group difference in dissociation remained significant after partialing out the variance associated with other psychopathological symptoms. Conversely, only the difference in paranoid symptoms remained-marginally-significant when controlling for the influence of dissociation. This finding suggests that dissociation may have unique relevance for the psychological functioning of inmates.

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Factor Structure and Correlates of the Dissociative Experiences Scale in a Large Offender Sample

Cited by 35 publications

References 47 publications

The relationship between childhood adversities and dissociation in severe mental illness: a meta‐analytic review

The relationship between childhood adversities and dissociation in severe mental illness: a meta‐analytic review

Improving the psychometric properties of the dissociative experiences scale (DES-II): a Rasch validation study

Dissociative Experiences and Psychopathology Among Inmates in Italian and Portuguese Prisons

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