Downloads & Free Reading Options - Results

Childhood trauma is alarmingly common (prevalence rates of up to 65% in young adults; Fu et al., 2018) and linked to various mental health problems, including personality disorder (Massullo et al., 2023; Xiao et al., 2023). However, its link with identity functioning is less established despite identity being a transdiagnostic risk factor (Potterton et al., 2022). Various theories suggest that childhood trauma could be related to both positive and negative identity functioning (Berman et al., 2020; Waterman, 2020), yet studies directly investigating this connection are lacking. This proposed relationship between childhood trauma and identity functioning could be explained by individual differences in emotion regulation and interpersonal relatedness, which both play crucial roles in identity functioning (Branje, 2022; Neacsiu et al., 2015). Importantly, both could also be greatly impacted by trauma (Aafjes-van Doorn et al., 2020; Agorastos et al., 2018). Therefore, this study aims to investigate the relationship between different types of childhood trauma and both adaptive and disturbed dimensions of identity functioning in young adults. Additionally, it aims to examine interpersonal relatedness, emotion regulation and their interplay as possible mediators of this relationship.