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Cited by 57Psychosomatic Disorders and Their TreatmentsChild Abuse and TraumaEating Disorders and Behaviors

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

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Scheffers, Mia, Hoek, Maike, Bosscher, Ruud J., van Duijn, Marijtje A. J., Schoevers, Robert A., van Busschbach, Jooske T.·2017·European Journal of Psychotraumatology
DOI 10.1080/20008198.2017.1322892PMC PMC5475325
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Abstract

Background: A crucial but often overlooked impact of early life exposure to trauma is its far-reaching effect on a person’s relationship with their body. Several domains of body experience may be negatively influenced or damaged as a result of early childhood trauma.Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate disturbances in three domains of body experience: body attitude, body satisfaction, and body awareness. Furthermore, associations between domains of body experience and severity of trauma symptoms as well as frequency of dissociation were evaluated.Method: Body attitude was measured with the Dresden Body Image Questionnaire, body satisfaction with the Body Cathexis Scale, and body awareness with the Somatic Awareness Questionnaire in 50 female patients with complex trauma and compared with scores in a non-clinical female sample (n = 216). Patients in the clinical sample also filled out the Davidson Trauma Scale and the Dissociation Experience Scale.Results: In all measured domains, body experience was severely affected in patients with early childhood trauma. Compared with scores in the non-clinical group, effect sizes in Cohen’s d were 2.7 for body attitude, 1.7 for body satisfaction, and 0.8 for body awareness. Associations between domains of body experience and severity of trauma symptoms were low, as were the associations with frequency of dissociative symptoms.Conclusions: Early childhood trauma in women is associated with impairments in self-reported body experience that warrant careful assessment in the treatment of women with psychiatric disorders.

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  • Emotional trauma survivors (including those with early childhood trauma) may be particularly vulnerable to having a negative body image as adults or adolescents.

    “Emotional trauma survivors (including those with early childhood trauma) may be particularly vulnerable to having a negative body image as adults or adolescents.”

    From The Groundswell Community Surf Therapy Intervention for At-Risk Women and Changes in Body Acceptance, Resilience, and Emotional Regulation (2024) · cites this paper as [43]

    The Discussion reports impaired body experience among women in psychiatric treatment with histories of early childhood trauma, compared with a community sample. The Introduction also describes negative body-related attitudes after repeated early-life trauma. The claim extends this evidence to emotional trauma survivors generally and to adolescents, neither of which the cited passages establish. (LLM, conf=0.85)

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Research works printed but not linked: 5

  1. Burger M., & Gianotten K. (2011). Psychometric properties of the Somatic Awareness Questionnaire (SAQ) (Unpublished Master’s thesis). Department of Human Movement Sciences, VU University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
  2. Chen P. Y., & Popovich P. M. (2002). Correlation. Parametric and nonparametric measures. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
  3. Courtois C. A., & Ford J. D. (2009). Treating complex traumatic stress disorders. New York: The Guilford Press.
  4. Vermetten E. (2012). Neurobiologie van posttraumatische stressstoornissen [Neurobioloy of post traumatic stress disorders] In Vermetten E., Kleber R. J., & van der Hart O. (Eds.), Handboek posttraumatische stressstoornissen (pp. 241– 261). Utrecht: De Tijdstroom.
  5. Vogt R. (2012). What disgust means for complex traumatized /dissociative patients: A pilot study from an outpatient practice. International Body Psychotherapy Journal, 11, 72– 90.

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Authors
Scheffers, M., Hoek, M., Bosscher, R. J., van Duijn, M. A. J., Schoevers, R. A., & van Busschbach, J. T.
Affiliations
  • Windesheim University of Applied Sciences (NL)
  • GGz centraal (NL)
  • Department of Sociology, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
  • University Medical Center Groningen (NL)
  • School of Human Movement and Education, Windesheim University of Applied Sciences, Zwolle, The Netherlands
Corresponding author
Scheffers, Mia
ORCID
Venue
European Journal of Psychotraumatology
Publisher
Informa UK Limited
Published
2017-01-01
Volume
8
Issue
1
Pages
1322892-1322892
ISSN
2000-8066 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1080/20008198.2017.1322892
PMC
PMC5475325
OpenAlex
W2618507687
Cited by
56
References
70
Citations by year
2026: 8 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 4
FWCI
2.92
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • European Journal of Psychotraumatology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • University of Groningen research database (University of Groningen / Centre for Information Technology) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Funders
no funding
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child Abuse and Trauma
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Eating Disorders and Behaviors
Keywords
early childhood trauma, bodily experience, body image, body satisfaction, body awareness, dissociation, injury severity, women, complex trauma, somatic awareness

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