Antanaitis, Faustas

Experiencing child sexual abuse (CSA) can be considered a traumatic experience. Many negative shortand long-term consequences are linked with CSA. Dissociative experiences are one such consequence. The goal of the present study was to investigate the differences in nonperitraumatic dissociative experiences in different types and circumstances of CSA. Method: The present study utilized a representative sample of Lithuanians aged 18–29 (N = 2,000). The frequency of dissociative experiences was investigated between groups of participants who experienced different types of CSA (contact, noncontact, and verbal) and different circumstances of abuse (age of onset, number of perpetrators, and instances of abuse). Results: Participants who indicated having experienced multiple types of CSA demonstrated a higher frequency of dissociative experiences compared to those with no indicated CSA or a single type of CSA. No significant differences were found between different types of CSA. Contrary to expectations, no significant differences were found based on age of onset, number of perpetrators, or number of CSA instances, even though their strength of relationship with dissociation differed. Notably, those unable to recall CSA experiences consistently reported a higher frequency of dissociative experiences. Conclusions: Taken together, our findings confirm that there is a difference in frequency of dissociative experiences between those who experienced CSA and those who did not. Findings of the present study would suggest that different types of CSA should not be joined into one, since there may be important differences between them.

Background Childhood maltreatment is associated with dissociative experiences later in life, but it remains unclear which characteristics of maltreatment are most relevant for such experiences. This study examined cumulative maltreatment exposure, maltreatment types, and developmental timing experienced during childhood years. Method A representative sample (N = 2000, 47.65% women, M age = 23.89, SD = 3.59) of Lithuanian young adults (ages 18–29) completed measures of childhood maltreatment (MACE) and dissociative experiences (DES-II), a dimensional measure capturing a broad spectrum of dissociative phenomena. Results Hierarchical linear regressions with bootstrapped confidence intervals were conducted controlling for sociodemographic variables. Greater cumulative maltreatment experienced during childhood was associated with higher frequency of dissociative experiences in young adults. Physical abuse and non-verbal emotional abuse were significant predictors when examined simultaneously. Participants who experienced single and multiple types of maltreatment differed from those who did not have such experiences, however, no differences between the 2 groups were found. Developmental timing (age of onset, age of exposure, cumulative age of exposure periods) variables were not significant. Family disharmony was indirectly associated with dissociation through cumulative maltreatment. Conclusions Cumulative and threat-related maltreatment were modestly associated with frequency of dissociative experiences, whereas developmental timing and the number of maltreatment types showed more limited associations.

Background: This study intended to explore the role of personality traits and basic psychological needs in law enforcement officers’ ability to recognize emotions: anger, joy, sadness, fear, surprise, disgust, and neutral. It was significant to analyze law enforcement officers’ emotion recognition and the contributing factors, as this field has been under-researched despite increased excessive force use by officers in many countries. Methods: This study applied the Big Five–2 (BFI-2), the Basic Psychological Needs Satisfaction and Frustration Scale (BPNSFS), and the Karolinska Directed Emotional Faces set of stimuli (KDEF). The data was gathered using an online questionnaire provided directly to law enforcement agencies. A total of 154 law enforcement officers participated in the study, 50.65% were females, and 49.35% were males. The mean age was 41.2 (age range = 22–61). In order to analyze the data, SEM and multiple linear regression methods were used. Results: This study analyzed variables of motion recognition, personality traits, and needs satisfaction and confirmed that law enforcement officers’ personality traits play a significant role in emotion recognition. Respondents’ agreeableness significantly predicted increased overall emotion recognition; conscientiousness predicted increased anger recognition; joy recognition was significantly predicted by extraversion, neuroticism, and agreeableness. This study also confirmed that law enforcement officers’ basic psychological needs satisfaction/frustration play a significant role in emotion recognition. Respondents’ relatedness satisfaction significantly predicted increased overall emotion recognition, fear recognition, joy recognition, and sadness recognition. Relatedness frustration significantly predicted decreased anger recognition, surprise recognition, and neutral face recognition. Furthermore, this study confirmed links between law enforcement officers’ personality traits, satisfaction/frustration of basic psychological needs, and emotion recognition, χ2 = 57.924; df = 41; p = 0.042; TLI = 0.929; CFI = 0.956; RMSEA = 0.042 [0.009–0.065]. Discussion: The findings suggested that agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, and neuroticism play an essential role in satisfaction and frustration of relatedness needs, which, subsequently, link to emotion recognition. Due to the relatively small sample size, the issues of validity/reliability of some instruments, and other limitations, the results of this study should preferably be regarded with concern.