Childhood trauma experiences and affecting factors in people with mental disorders

This study was performed to determine the childhood traumatic experiences and affecting factors in people with mental disorders. The study population consisted of 496 patients who applied to Bursa City Hospital psychiatry outpatient clinic between July 2023 and June 2024, and the sample consisted of 496 patients who met the inclusion criteria on the specified dates. The study data were collected with a Descriptive Information Form and the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire Short Form (CTQ-SF). In the data evaluation, descriptive statistics, independent sample t test, one-way analysis of variance and Pearson correlation analysis were used. In the study, it was determined that the CTQ-SF total mean score of individuals with mental disorders was 66.07±9.35. The mean scores of the physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, physical neglect and emotional neglect sub-dimensions of the CTQ-SF were 12.40±2.94, 11.31±3.10, 11.18±2.91, 15.10±3.50 and 16.07±4.35, respectively. In addition, it was determined that there was a statistically significant relationship between demographic characteristics such as age, gender, marital status, education level, employment status, economic level, place of residence, and persons living with and the mean total or sub-dimension scores of the CTQ-SF. Furthermore, it was found that there was a statistically significant relationship between clinical characteristics such as psychiatric diagnosis, smoking/alcohol use, sleep quality and suicide history and the mean total or sub-dimension scores of the CTQ-SF. In the correlation analysis, a weak or moderately significant positive relationship was found between physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, physical neglect and emotional neglect. Accordingly, the results of the study revealed the importance of preventing childhood traumatic experiences.