Explaining the effect of pathological personality traits on dissociative experiences in depressed patients: The mediating roles of emotion regulation and experiential avoidance

Depressed patients show deficiencies in dissociative experiences and components of executive functions such as attention and planning, information processing speed, selective attention and consciousness, avoidance and inhibition. Accordingly, the research question is whether emotion regulation and experiential avoidance explain the effect of pathogenic personality traits on dissociative experiences?

The aim of this study was to determine the mediating roles of emotion regulation and experiential avoidance in the relationship between pathological personality traits and dissociative experiences in depressed people.

This study was descriptive-correlational. The statistical population consisted of all depressed people with a history of suicide referring to psychological and psychiatric clinics of the city of Kerman in 2018. 378 subjects were selected by purposive sampling. The research instruments consisted of Kruger et al. (2012) Pathological Personality Traits Questionnaire based on DSM5, Gratz & Roemer (2004) Emotion Regulation Difficulties Scale, Gámez & et.al (2011) Experiential Avoidance Questionnaire, Bernstein & Putnam (1986) Dissociative Experiences Scale, Beck (1979) Suicidal Thoughts Scale, and Beck (1996) Depression Questionnaire-second edition.

The results showed that direct and indirect effects of the pathological personality traits on dissociative experiences were significant (p<0/01, p<0/05).  

Pathogenic personality traits, emotion regulation, and empirical avoidance are important in describing dissociative experiences. Also, emotion regulation and empirical avoidance, as mediating variables, explain the relationship between personality traits and dissociative experiences.