چكيده لاتين :
Background & Aims: According to the World Health Organization (WHO) statistics, millions of children are
victims of abuse each year. Childhood trauma could be physical or psychological abuse, sexual abuse or neglect
of a child by the guardian. Abuse has long-lasting and irreversible effects on the psyche of children, which may
linger even through adulthood. Among the long-term psychological effects of childhood abuse are major
behavioral and psychological disorders in adolescence and adulthood. Such an example is the onset of the
symptoms of cluster C personality disorders, which encompass avoidant, dependent, and obsessive-compulsive
personality disorders, commonly characterized by anxiety, apprehension, and fear in the affected individuals.
Cognitive emotional regulation is a variable that may be influenced by childhood trauma and lead to symptoms
of personality disorders. Emotional regulation refers to the process through which an individual recognizes the
emotions that are affecting them, how to experience these emotions, and their management. Recent findings
suggest that even when child abuse is controlled, the problems associated with emotional regulation persist.
Nurses constitute the largest portion of healthcare providers and affect the productivity and progress of the
organization more than other hospital staff. In addition, the productivity of nurses ultimately leads to better
decision-making in planning healthcare services. Therefore, assessing the predispositions of personality disorders
in nursing students and temporary nurses within the program of human research project is paramount. One of
these preconditions is the childhood traumas of the nursing students and temporary nurses within the program of
human research project . The present study aimed to propose a model of childhood trauma and cognitive emotional
regulation to help recognize cluster C personality disorders in the nursing students and temporary nurses within
the program of human research project in 2019.
Materials & Methods: This cross-sectional, descriptive-correlational study was conducted on the nursing
students of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences in 2019 and the temporary nurses within the program of human
research project in Shiraz, Iran. The inclusion criteria were consent to participate in the research, no history of
psychological treatments for emotional disorders, no use of psychiatric medications for the reduction of anxiety,
stress, and depression, living with parents, absence of specific chronic disorders affecting physical and mental
health (e.g., migraine, severe lower back pain, diabetes, cardiac and renal diseases, and infertility), and normal
course of life within six months before the investigation (i.e., no specific incidents or crisis such as the death of a
loved one, an incurable disease of a family member, and change of residence). The subjects with incomplete
questionnaires and those using psychiatric medications were excluded from the study. Data were collected using
the self-report early trauma inventory-short form, cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire, and Millon clinical
multiaxial inventory-III, which was completed in a self-report manner. During the completion of the
questionnaires, the researcher, who was experienced in mental illness counseling, accompanied the participants
to gain their trust and address their concerns in responding to the questions. The sample size of the study included
291 nursing students and employed nurses, which was estimated using the G-power software. The subjects were selected via simple cluster sampling. After providing the necessary explanations regarding the importance of the
research and attracting sincere cooperation, the questionnaires were distributed among the students and nurses.
Considering individual differences, the set time for the completion of the questionnaires was 15-30 minutes, and
the questionnaires were received after completion. Data collection continued for one week and was performed at
the hospital for the temporary nurses within the program of human research project with the coordination of the
supervisor and at the nursing school for the senior nursing students. Data analysis was performed in SPSS version
22 using Pearson's correlation-coefficient to describe and analyze the statistical data. In addition, the AMOS-22
software was applied to determine the fit of the studied model based on the structural equation model and analyze
the path of the observable variables. Notably, all the calculations were carried out at the statistical inference limit
of P<0.05.
Results: Childhood general traumas, childhood physical abuse, and childhood sexual abuse could explain the
obsessive-compulsive disorder in the nursing students both directly (P<0.01, P<0.0005, and P<0.0005,
respectively) and indirectly through adaptive and maladaptive cognitive emotional regulation styles (P<0.01).
Moreover, childhood physical abuse could explain the avoidant personality disorder of the students both directly
(P<0.05) and indirectly through adaptive and maladaptive cognitive emotional regulation styles (P<0.05).
Childhood physical abuse and childhood sexual abuse could explain the dependent personality disorder of the
students both directly (P<0.001 and P<0.05, respectively) and indirectly through maladaptive cognitive emotional
regulation styles (P<0.05). The statistical findings also indicated that the obtained data supported the theoretical
model of explaining personality disorders to a great extent, and all the indicators of fit confirmed that the proposed
model is acceptable.
Conclusion: According to the results, the senior nursing students and employed nurses within the program of
human research project who have been abused as children were more likely to present with symptoms of cluster
C disorder in their behaviors in adulthood. Furthermore, cognitive emotional regulation strategies acted as a
mediating variable in the association of childhood trauma and cluster C personality disorder; in other words,
childhood trauma leads to emotional maladjustment in adulthood, and the lack of appropriate emotional regulation
strategies could lead to the symptoms of cluster C personality disorder. Based on the findings, it is expected that
training on cognitive emotional regulation strategies would act as an effective mechanism in the modification of
cognitive emotional regulation and become an proper approach to the improvement of cluster C personality
disorders in nursing students and employed nurses within the program of human research project, thereby
preventing mental illnesses and personality disorders.
