@2024 Afarand., IRAN
ISSN: 2383-3483 Journal of Police Medicine 2018;7(3):123-128
ISSN: 2383-3483 Journal of Police Medicine 2018;7(3):123-128
Relationship of Somatic Symptoms with Difficulty in Emotional Adjustment, Alexithymia and Traumatic Events in Adolescents Offenders
ARTICLE INFO
Article Type
Descriptive & Survey StudyAuthors
Sadeghpoor R. (*)Farhangi A. (1)
Tizdast T. (1)
(*) Department of Psychology, Humanities Faculty, North Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
(1) Department of Psychology, Humanities Faculty, Tonekabon Branch, Islamic Azad University, Mazandaran, Iran
Correspondence
Address: Unit 6, Floor 5, Block 9, Shahid Chamran Residential Complex, Nobonyad Square, Pasdaran Avenue, Tehran, Iran. Postal code: 1957978315Phone: +98 (21) 26100837
Fax: +98 (21) 55609994
sadeghpoor_r@yahoo.com
Article History
Received: November 18, 2018Accepted: February 19, 2018
ePublished: June 29, 2018
ABSTRACT
Aims
Somatization disorder refers to a set of disorders that include physical symptoms but are not fully explained by a general medical condition, direct effects of a substance, or other psychiatric disorder. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between difficulty in emotional adjustment, alexithymia, and traumatic events with somatic symptoms in adolescents of Tehran, Iran, Correctional Center.
Instrument & Methods This descriptive-correlational study was carried out in boys offenders of 15 to 18 year old who were in the Tehran, Iran, Correctional Center in 1395. 120 persons of these adolescents were selected by available sampling method. Toronto Alexithymia Scale, Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, Impact of Event Scale-Revised, and Symptom Checklist 90 were used to data collection. The correlation coefficients of the studied indices were analyzed by multiple regression analysis in SPSS 19 software.
Findings After conducting the tests among all participants, the total score of the emotional regulation questionnaire was 123.847±19.747, the total emotional score of 65.708±8.28 and the total score of the accident rate was 49.150±16.299. Results of multiple regression analysis by enter method showed that 15% of somatic symptoms variance was explained by difficulty in emotional adjustment, alexithymia, and traumatic events (F=7.980; p=0.001) but the only positive predictor of somatic symptoms was the traumatic events (t=4.031; p<0.05).
Conclusion Childhood traumatic events and their impact on the individual are a strong explanation of somatic symptoms in adolescents residing in the Correctional Center.
Instrument & Methods This descriptive-correlational study was carried out in boys offenders of 15 to 18 year old who were in the Tehran, Iran, Correctional Center in 1395. 120 persons of these adolescents were selected by available sampling method. Toronto Alexithymia Scale, Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, Impact of Event Scale-Revised, and Symptom Checklist 90 were used to data collection. The correlation coefficients of the studied indices were analyzed by multiple regression analysis in SPSS 19 software.
Findings After conducting the tests among all participants, the total score of the emotional regulation questionnaire was 123.847±19.747, the total emotional score of 65.708±8.28 and the total score of the accident rate was 49.150±16.299. Results of multiple regression analysis by enter method showed that 15% of somatic symptoms variance was explained by difficulty in emotional adjustment, alexithymia, and traumatic events (F=7.980; p=0.001) but the only positive predictor of somatic symptoms was the traumatic events (t=4.031; p<0.05).
Conclusion Childhood traumatic events and their impact on the individual are a strong explanation of somatic symptoms in adolescents residing in the Correctional Center.
Keywords:
Somatoform Disorders ,
Adult Survivors of Child Adverse Events ,
Alexithymia,
Emotional Adjustment,
CITATION LINKS
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[32]Andreski P, Chilcoat H, Breslau N. Post-traumatic stress disorder and somatization symptoms: a prospective study. Psychiatry Res. 1998;79(2):131-8.
[33]North CS, Kawasaki A, Spitznagel EL, Hong BA. The course of PTSD, major depression, substance abuse, and somatization after a natural disaster. J Nerv Ment Dis. 2004;192(12):823-9.
[34]Van Ommeren M, Sharma B, Sharma GK, Komproe I, Cardeña E, de Jong JT. The relationship between somatic and PTSD symptoms among Bhutanese refugee torture survivors: examination of comorbidity with anxiety and depression. J Trauma Stress. 2002;15(5):415-21.
[35]Myers LB. Identifying repressors: A methodological issue for health psychology. Psychol Health. 2000;15(2):205-14.
[36]Glaser JP, Van Os J, Portegijs PJ, Myin-Germeys I. Childhood trauma and emotional reactivity to daily life stress in adult frequent attenders of general practitioners. J Psychosom Res. 2006;61(2):229-36.
[37]Waldinger RJ, Schulz MS, Barsky AJ, Ahern DK. Mapping the road from childhood trauma to adult somatization: the role of attachment. Psychosom Med. 2006;68(1):129-35.
[38]Besharat M, Tajrishi KZ, Noorbala AA. Alexithymia and emotion regulation strategies in patients with somatization, anxiety disorders, and normal individuals: A comparative study. Contempor Psychol. 2014;8(2):3-16.
[2]Gupta MA. Review of somatic symptoms in post-trumatic stress disorder. Int Rev Psychiatry. 2013;25(1):86-99.
[3]Hotopf M, Mayou R, Wadsworth M, Wessely S. Childhood risk factors for adults with medically unexplained symptoms: results from a national birth cohort study. Am J Psychiatry. 1999;156(11):1796-800.
[4]Moore PM, Baker GA, McDade G, Chadwick D, Brown S. Epilepsy, pseudoseizures and perceived family characteristics: a controlled study. Epilepsy Res. 1994;18(1):75-83.
[5]Fry RP, Crisp AH, Beard RW. Sociopsychological factors in chronic pelvic pain: a review. J Psychosom Res. 1997;42(1):1-5.
[6]De Gucht V, Heiser W. Alexithymia and somatization: a quantitative review of the literature. J Psychosom Res. 2003;54(5):425-34.
[7]Kooiman CG. The status of alexithymia as a risk factor in medically unexplained physical symptoms. Compr Psychiatry. 1998;39(3):152-9.
[8]Gross JJ. Antecedent-and response-focused emotion regulation: divergent consequences for experience, expression, and physiology. J Personal Soc Psychol. 1998;74(1):224-37.
[9]Schore AN. Affect Dysregulation and disorders of the self (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology). New York: Norton & Company; 2003.
[10]Beauchaine TP, Gatzke-Kopp L, Mead HK. Polyvagal theory and developmental psychopathology: Emotion dysregulation and conduct problems from preschool to adolescence. Biol Psychol. 2007;74(2):174-84.
[11]Joormann J, Gotlib IH. Emotion regulation in depression: Relation to cognitive inhibition. Cogn Emot. 2010;24(2):281-98.
[12]Coan JA, Allen JJ. Frontal EEG asymmetry as a moderator and mediator of emotion. Biol Psychol. 2004;67(1-2):7-50.
[13]Wisco BE, Sloan DM, Marx BP. Cognitive emotion regulation and written exposure therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder. Clin Psychol Sci. 2013;1(4):435-42.
[14]Gratz KL, Rosenthal MZ, Tull MT, Lejuez CW, Gunderson JG. An experimental investigation of emotion dysregulation in borderline personality disorder. J Abnorm Psychol. 2006;115(4):850-5.
[15]Pandey R, Saxena P, Dubey A. Emotion regulation difficulties in alexithymia and mental health. Eur J Psychol. 2011;7(4):604-23.
[16]Parker JD, Taylor GJ, Bagby RM. The relationship between emotional intelligence and alexithymia. Personal Individ Differ. 2001;30(1):107-15.
[17]Khantzian EJ. The self-medication hypothesis of substance use disorders: A reconsideration and recent applications. Harv Rev Psychiatry. 1997;4(5):231-44.
[18]Martin JB, Pihl RO. Influence of alexithymic characteristics on physiological and subjective stress responses in normal individuals. Psychother Psychosom. 1986;45(2):66-77.
[19] Brown RJ, Schrag A, Trimble MR. Dissociation, childhood interpersonal trauma, and family functioning in patients with somatization disorder. Am J Psychiatry. 2005;162(5):899-905.
[20]Sadock BJ, Sadock VA. Kaplan and Sadock's synopsis of psychiatry: Behavioral sciences/clinical psychiatry. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2011.
[21]Tabachnick BG, Fidell LS. Using multivariate statistics. Boston: Allyn & Bacon/Pearson Education; 2007.
[22]Parker JD, Summerfeldt LJ, Hogan MJ, Majeski SA. Emotional intelligence and academic success: Examining the transition from high school to university. Personal Individ Differ. 2004;36(1):163-72.
[23]Parker JD, Taylor GJ, Bagby RM. The 20-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale: III. Reliability and factorial validity in a community population. J Psychosom Res. 2003;55(3):269-75.
[24]Besharat MA, Tajrishi Z, Noorbala AA. Alexithymia and emotion regulation strategies in patients with somatization, anxiety disorders, and normal individuals: A comparative study. Contemp Psychol. 2014;8(2):3-16. [Persian]
[25]Garnefski N, Kraaij V, Spinhoven P. Manual for the use of the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. Leiderdorp: Datec; 2002.
[26]Aminabadi Z. Correlation between parenting style and cognitive emotion regulation with educational function [dissertation].Tehran: Shahid Beheshti University; 2009. [Persian]
[27]Weiss DS, Marmar CR. The Impact of Event Scale Revised. In: Wilson JP, Keane TM, editors. Assessing psychological trauma and PTSD. New York: Guilford Press; 2004. pp.168-90.
[28]Mogadam JA, Shooshtari MH, Panaghi L. Persian version validation in impact of event Scale-Revised. Tehran Univ Med J. 2006;64(3):52-60. [Persian]
[29]Deragotis L. SCL-90-R administration, scoring and procedures manual. Towson, MD: Clinical Psychometric Research; 1986.
[30]Bagheriyazdi A, Bolhari J, Shahmohammad D. An epidemiological study of psychological disorders on a rural area (Meibod, Yazd) in Iran. Iran J Psychiatry Clin Psychol. 1994;1(1):32-41. [Persian]
[31]Elklit A, Christiansen DM. Predictive factors for somatization in a trauma sample. Clin Prac Epidemiol Ment Health. 2009;1(5):1-8.
[32]Andreski P, Chilcoat H, Breslau N. Post-traumatic stress disorder and somatization symptoms: a prospective study. Psychiatry Res. 1998;79(2):131-8.
[33]North CS, Kawasaki A, Spitznagel EL, Hong BA. The course of PTSD, major depression, substance abuse, and somatization after a natural disaster. J Nerv Ment Dis. 2004;192(12):823-9.
[34]Van Ommeren M, Sharma B, Sharma GK, Komproe I, Cardeña E, de Jong JT. The relationship between somatic and PTSD symptoms among Bhutanese refugee torture survivors: examination of comorbidity with anxiety and depression. J Trauma Stress. 2002;15(5):415-21.
[35]Myers LB. Identifying repressors: A methodological issue for health psychology. Psychol Health. 2000;15(2):205-14.
[36]Glaser JP, Van Os J, Portegijs PJ, Myin-Germeys I. Childhood trauma and emotional reactivity to daily life stress in adult frequent attenders of general practitioners. J Psychosom Res. 2006;61(2):229-36.
[37]Waldinger RJ, Schulz MS, Barsky AJ, Ahern DK. Mapping the road from childhood trauma to adult somatization: the role of attachment. Psychosom Med. 2006;68(1):129-35.
[38]Besharat M, Tajrishi KZ, Noorbala AA. Alexithymia and emotion regulation strategies in patients with somatization, anxiety disorders, and normal individuals: A comparative study. Contempor Psychol. 2014;8(2):3-16.