Experiential Avoidance, a concept that encompasses various attempts to avoid uncomfortable internal experience, has been repeatedly verified as a predictor of the onset and maintenance of various mental disorders. Given that numerous researchers have ...
Experiential Avoidance, a concept that encompasses various attempts to avoid uncomfortable internal experience, has been repeatedly verified as a predictor of the onset and maintenance of various mental disorders. Given that numerous researchers have examined the predictors of chronic experiential avoidance, this study aimed to explore the relationship between early life attachment trauma and experiential avoidance. Moreover, regarding the relationship between the two, this study aimed to identify whether negative affect intensity, which refers to the degree of intrinsic intense experience of negative affect, and distress tolerance, which is conceptualized as the internal competency to endure psychological distress, act as a mediator. For this purpose, a self-report online survey was conducted on 633 Korean adults aged 19 to 29. Based on the collected data, structural equation analysis and bootstrapping confirmed the structural relations and mediating effects of each variable. Additionally, to identify whether there is a difference in the level of negative emotional intensity, distress tolerance, and experiential avoidance according to the severity of the attachment trauma experience, the latent mean difference test using a MIMIC model was performed.
The main results of this study are as follows.
First, in terms of the relationship between early life attachment trauma and experiential avoidance, the analysis of structural equation modeling with the mediation of negative affect intensity and distress tolerance showed the significance of all direct paths except the path from negative emotional intensity to experiential avoidance.
Second, the results from bootstrapping to examine the indirect effect of negative affect intensity and distress tolerance in terms of the relationship between early life attachment trauma and experiential avoidance revealed the significance of the simple mediating effects of distress tolerance and the sequential dual mediating effect of negative emotional intensity and distress tolerance. However, the simple mediating effect of negative emotional intensity was not significant.
Third, the latent mean difference test to identify whether there is a difference in experiential avoidance, negative affect intensity, and distress tolerance according to the level of the attachment trauma experience revealed that, after controlling for gender, as early life attachment trauma was more frequent, the level of experiential avoidance and negative affect intensity was higher and distress tolerance was lower.
Taken together, it was found that the early life attachment trauma experience did not only directly predict the high level of experiential avoidance but also Early life attachment experience in trauma not only directly predicts a high level of experiential avoidance but also increased the tendency to avoid uncomfortable instinct experience by enhancing the negative affect intensity and hindering the endurance ability. Furthermore, although the attachment trauma experience magnified the negative affect intensity, the intense negative emotional experience did not lead to instant avoidance behaviors and deteriorated the endurance ability against the negative emotions so that it increased the individual tendency of avoidance. In addition, frequent attachment trauma was associated with more intense negative emotional experience, reduced ability to tolerate, and increase in experiential avoidance; it was found that level difference between variables occurred, as the experience of attachment trauma were accumulated.
This study aimed to promote a better understanding of the group with high experiential avoidance tendency. It confirmed the influence of various traumatic stress which can occur in the caregiver-child relationship as well as childhood abuse or neglect as a distance predictive variable of the high experiential avoidance tendency and verified the effects of the underlying mechanism in the process. In conclusion, it is suggested that nurturing internal competence to endure negative emotions in dealing with the chronic avoidance tendency is required. Considering the specificity of the attachment trauma group and cumulative traumatic experience is also need. Close explorations and appropriate interventions are expected to contribute to promoting the healthy development path of the group with attachment trauma.