Associations between PTSD symptoms and other psychiatric symptoms among college students exposed to childhood sexual abuse: a network analysis

Figures & data

Table 1. Sociodemographic characteristics of participants who experienced CSA.

	Sexual abuse (N = 3479)	Male (N = 1699)	Female (N = 1780)	P value	Cohen’s W
Residence
City	1788 (51.4)	850 (50.0)	938 (52.7)	.124	0.12
Town and county	1691 (48.6)	849 (50.0)	842 (47.3)
Ethnic
Han	3119 (89.7)	1548 (91.1)	1571 (88.3)	.007	0.12
Others	360 (10.4)	151 (8.9)	209 (11.7)
Family type^a					0.07
Nuclear family	2272 (65.4)	1124 (66.2)	1148 (64.5)	.82
More than three generation	651 (18.7)	356 (21.0)	295 (16.6)	.008
Adoptive/foster	6 (0.2)	1 (0.1)	5 (0.3)	–^b
Reconstituted	119 (3.4)	41 (2.4)	78 (4.4)	.012
Single-parent	357 (10.3)	158 (9.3)	199 (11.2)	.72
Left-behind	74 (2.1)	19 (1.1)	55 (3.1)	<.001
Current annual income^a					0.07
<¥6000	1052 (30.3)	498 (29.3)	554 (31.1)	.93
¥6000–13999	1047 (30.1)	464 (27.3)	583 (32.8)	.004
¥14000–22999	553 (15.9)	262 (15.4)	291 (16.3)	.64
≥¥23000	827 (23.8)	475 (28.0)	352 (19.8)	<.001
Only-child					0.06
Yes	1698 (48.8)	965 (56.8)	733 (41.2)	<.001
No	1781 (51.2)	734 (43.2)	1047 (58.8)
					Cohen’s d
Age, years: mean (SD)	19.67 (4.05)	19.42 (1.63)	19.91 (2.11)	<.001	0.26
PHQ-9	6.91 (4.92)	6.34 (4.98)	7.45 (4.80)	<.001	0.23
GAD-7	5.18 (4.34)	4.65 (4.33)	5.68 (4.29)	<.001	0.24
PTSD-10	4.32 (3.14)	4.07 (3.19)	4.56 (3.06)	<.001	0.16
Psychosis	1.28 (1.55)	1.55 (1.70)	1.01 (1.33)	<.001	0.36

PHQ-9, the nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire; GAD-7, the 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale; PTSD-10: measured by Trauma Screening Questionnaire. Bold value: P value lower than 0.001.

^a Rao-Scott $x^2$ tests were used for these categorical variables.

^b Not included in the analysis due to the sample size.

Figure 1. Symptom networks of the total sample (N = 3479), male (N = 1699) and female (N = 1780) exposed to CSA.

Note: Anx: Anxiety; Dep: Depression; Psy: Psychosis; PTSD.1: Intrusive thoughts; PTSD.2: Nightmares; PTSD.3: Flashbacks; PTSD.4: Emotional cue reactivity; PTSD.5: Physiological cue reactivity; PTSD.6: Sleep disturbance; PTSD.7: Irritability/anger; PTSD.8: Difficulty concentrating; PTSD.9: Hypervigilance; PTSD.10: Exaggerated startle response.

Figure 2. Symptom pathways between PTSD and psychosis among the total sample (N = 3479), male (N = 1699), and female (N = 1780) exposed to CSA.

Note: Anx: Anxiety; Dep: Depression; Psy: Psychosis; PTSD.1: Intrusive thoughts; PTSD.2: Nightmares; PTSD.3: Flashbacks; PTSD.4: Emotional cue reactivity; PTSD.5: Physiological cue reactivity; PTSD.6: Sleep disturbance; PTSD.7: Irritability/anger; PTSD.8: Difficulty concentrating; PTSD.9: Hypervigilance; PTSD.10: Exaggerated startle response.

Figure 3. The EI of each node in the networks among the total sample, male, and female groups exposed to CSA.

Data availability statement

The dataset and R code for this specific manuscript are available from the corresponding author upon request.