Negative body experience in women with early childhood trauma: associations with trauma severity and dissociation

Figures & data

Table 1. Diagnoses at start of treatment, time in treatment, and demographic information clinical sample (n = 50).

		n	%
Diagnosis^a	Posttraumatic Stress Disorder	29	58
	Dissociative Identity Disorder	6	12
	Dissociative Disorder Not Otherwise Specified	10	20
	Mood Disorder	4	8
	No diagnosis available	1	2
History of sexual abuse	Yes	40	80
	No	10	20
Time in treatment	< 12 months	26	52
	12–24 months	11	22
	> 24 months	13	26
Level of education	Basic education (≤ 9 years)	9	18
	Secondary education (10–12 years)	24	48
	Higher education (≥ 13 years)	17	34
Work situation	Regular employment	8	16
	Disability pension	28	56
	Other	10	20
	Missing	4	8

^aaccording to DSM-IV-TR (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2000)

Table 2. (Sub)scale score means, standard deviations and standardized differences of the trauma and non-clinical samples.

	Trauma group (n = 50)		Non-clinical group (n = 216)
Scale	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	Cohen’s d ^a
Trauma severity (DTS)	84.8^b	25.8
Dissociation (DES)	36.6	17.5
Body attitude (DBIQ-35)	2.17^d	0.56	3.58^d	0.46	2.77
Vitality	2.80	0.78	3.74	0.59	1.36
Body acceptance	2.26	0.96	3.68^c	0.70	1.69
Sexual fulfilment	1.62^c	0.71	3.66^d	0.68	2.93
Self-aggrandizement	1.82	0.61	3.10	0.56	2.18
Physical contact	2.34^c	0.88	3.80	0.62	1.92
Body Satisfaction (BCS)	2.67	0.59	3.61	0.53	1.68
Body Awareness (SAQ)	2.75 ^c	0.56	3.14 ^c	0.47	0.76

DTS = Davidson Trauma Scale; DES = Dissociative Experiences Scale; DBIQ = Dresdner Body Image Questionnaire; BCS = Body Cathexis Scale; SAQ = Somatic Awareness Questionnaire.

^a based on unequal variances

^b sumscore

^c one missing observation

^d two missing observations

Table 3. Pearson’s correlation coefficients between domains of body experience in the clinical sample and healthy sample after removal of outliers.

	Trauma group (n = 47)		Non-clinical group (n = 211)
	BCS (body satisfaction)	SAQ (body awareness)	BCS (body satisfaction)	SAQ (body awareness)
DBIQ (body attitude)	.70^**b	.46^**c	.58^**b	.08^c
sub-scales DBIQ
vitality	.37*	.12^a	.52**	−.12^a
body acceptance	.77**	.27^a	.62^*a	.02^b
sexual fulfilment	.28^a	.39^*b	.34^**b	.11^c
self-aggrandizement	.31*	.40^*a	.33**	.15*^a
physical contact	.36^*a	.52^**b	.17	.15^a
SAQ	.22^a		−.02^a

BCS = Body Cathexis Scale; DBIQ = Dresden Body Image Questionnaire; SAQ = Somatic Awareness Questionnaire.

* p < .05 ** p < .001

^a one missing pair of observations

^b two missing pairs of observations

^c three missing pairs of observations

Table 4. Pearson’s r between aspects of body experience (DBIQ, SAQ, BCS), trauma symptoms (DTS) and dissociation (DES) after removal of outliers (n = 47).

	DTS	DES
DBIQ (body attitude)	−.31*^c	−.29^c
sub-scales DBIQ
vitality	−.37*^a	−.06^a
body acceptance	−.24^a	−.21^a
sexual fulfilment	−.17^b	−.25^b
self-aggrandizement	−.02^a	−.20^a
physical contact	−.13^b	−.26^b
SAQ (body awareness)	−.32*^b	−.31*^b
BCS (body satisfaction)	−.41*^a	−.25^a

BCS = Body Cathexis Scale; DBIQ = Dresden Body Image Questionnaire; DES = Dissociative Experiences Scale; SAQ = Somatic Awareness Questionnaire.

* p < .05

^a one missing pair of observations

^b two missing pairs of observations

^c three missing pairs of observations

American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed., Text Revision). Washington, DC: Author.

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