The role of traumatic childhood experiences, mentalization and Alexithymia in predicting depression and suicidal thoughts in women suffering from the trauma of marital betrayal

Betrayal In recent years, it has become one of the most problematic and traumatic marital conflicts. In addition, this phenomenon brings with it various psychological problems; therefore, the present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the role of traumatic childhood experiences, mentalization and alexithymia in predicting depression and suicidal thoughts in women suffering from the trauma of marital betrayal.

The method of this research is descriptive-correlation. The statistical population of this research included all women suffering from the trauma of marital betrayal in Tehran in 2022. For this purpose, 220 of these people were selected by convenience sampling method and they responded to the short form of Bernstein et al.'s Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (2003), Fonagy et al.'s Reflective Function Questionnaire (2016), Toronto alexithymia Scale (1994), Revised Beck Depression Inventory (1996) and Beck Suicidal Ideation Scale (1991). The collected data were analyzed using Pearson's correlation coefficient and multiple regression analysis in SPSS-24 software.

The results showed that there is a positive and significant relationship between traumatic childhood experiences, mentalization (uncertainty component) and alexithymia with depression and suicidal thoughts (P<0.01). Also, there is a negative and significant relationship between mentalization (confidence component) and depression and suicidal thoughts (P<0.01). The results of multiple regression analysis also revealed that 76.9% of the variance of depression and 55.2% of the variance of suicidal thoughts are explained by traumatic childhood experiences, mentalization and alexithymia.

According to the results, it is possible to use mentalizing interventions, alexithymia and training based on childhood trauma treatment in adulthood to reduce depression symptoms and suicidal thoughts in women suffering from marital infidelity.