Objective: The research was conducted to determine the relationship between violent trauma, child abuse history, and dissociative symptoms in a Russian population.Method: Three hundred and one undergraduate students from Moscow State Linguistics University participated in the study and completed the Dissociation Continuum Scale, the Violence History Questionnaire, the Traumatic Events Survey (TES), and a demographic measure.Results: Scores on dissociation and its subfactors were significantly higher in the Russian sample compared to the normative US group. The best predictors for dissociation were experiencing a violent trauma, child abuse history, and/or the experience of a fearful event. Those participants with a prior child abuse history were more symptomatic after adult trauma than those with no such history.Conclusions: The relationship between trauma/abuse and dissociation is unlikely to be a result of suggestion by therapists or media exposure, since the correlation appears in a Russian population who are relatively unexposed to these suggestive sources. The validity, reliability, and structure of the dissociation measure were relatively similar in American and Russian samples.
Objectif: Cette recherche a ete menee afin de determiner la relation entre un traumatisme violent, un abus sexuel dans le passe et des symptomes dissociatifs dans une population russe.Methode: Trois cent un etudiants en linguistique de l'Universite d'Etat de Moscou ont participe B cette etude. Ils ont rempli le ''Dissociation Continuum Scale,'' le ''Violence History Questionnaire,'' le ''Traumatic Events Survey (TES)'' ainsi qu'une evaluation demographique.Resultats: Les scores de la dissociation et de ses sous-facteurs ont ete significativement plus eleves dans les echantillons russes que dans le groupe comparatif americain. Les meilleurs predicteurs de la dissociation etaient: l'experience d'un traumatisme violent, des abus subis dans l'enfance, et/ou l'experience d'un evenement terrifiant. Les participants ayant subi des abus dans l'enfance presentaient plus de symptomes apres un traumatisme a l'age adulte que ceux qui n'en avaient pas subi.Conclusions: Il est peu probable que la relation entre traumatisme, abus et dissociation soit le resultat d'une suggestion des therapeutes ou de l'exposition aux media car la correlation concerne une population russe relativement peu exposee a de telles sources de suggestion. La validite, la fiabilite et la structure de la mesure de la dissociation etaient relativemen semblables dans les echantillons russes et americains.
Spanish language abstract not available at time of publication.