The role of cognitive fusion, distress tolerance and self-compassion in post traumatic growth of abused individuals in their childhood

Child abuse and  harsh childhood experiences have long-lasting and unpleasant consequences on personality development and adaptation in adulthood.

The aim of the present  research was to determine the role of cognitive fusion, distress tolerance  and self-compassion on predicting post traumatic growth of abused indvduals in their childhood.

The method of the present research was descripptive correlation study. The population included whole abused subjects over 15 years old who referred to psychiatric and counseling centers of Shiraz in the first half of the 2017. One hundred and ninety subjects were selected by available sampling  method . In order to gather the data,  Child trauma questionnaire (1998), cognitive fusion scale (2014), distress tolerance questionnaire (2005), self-compassion questionnaire (2003) and post-traumatic growth scale (1996) were used. The data were analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression analysis via SPSS-22 software.

The results showed that there was significantly negative relationship between cognitve fusion and post traumatic growht (P<0.01), and positive relationship between distress tolerance and self-compassion with post traumatic growht (P<0.01). Although, the results indicated that cognitive fusion could not predict post traumatic growht but another two variables could explain  41%  variance of post traumatic growht.

According to the findings of this study, it can be concluded that psychological factors play significant roles in post traumatic growth . In treatment interventions, attention to these factors can be helpful in adapting to child abuse individuals.