Interpersonal Violence and Psychotic-Like Experiences: The Mediation of Ideas of Reference, Childhood Memories, and Dissociation

Abstract

Previous studies have demonstrated the relationship between the accumulation of situations involving interpersonal violence (IV) and psychotic-like experiences. This study explored whether IV is related to aberrant salience (AS), using a sequential mediation model that included memories of relationship with parents (submission, devaluation, and threat; Early Life Experiences Scale (ELES)), ideas of reference (IR), and dissociative symptoms (absorption and depersonalization), and whether the patient/nonpatient condition moderated this effect. The sample was made of 401 participants (including 43 patients with psychotic disorders) aged 18 to 71 years (Mage = 30.43; SD = 11.19). Analysis of a serial multiple mediator model revealed that IR, ELES, absorption, and depersonalization fully mediated the effect of IV on AS, explaining 39% of the variance, regardless of the patient/nonpatient condition. The indirect paths, which place IR and dissociation (especially absorption, the variable to which the IR and ELES lead) in a primordial position for being related to AS, are discussed. This continuum model could be useful for understanding processes related to the onset of psychosis unmoderated by the patient/nonpatient condition.

Aberrant Salience and Disorganized Symptoms as Mediators of Psychosis

“…Similarly, AS, traditionally related to psychosis because it represents the emergence of alterations of the self ( Henriksen and Parnas, 2019 ), can also be objectivized on the continuum of human experience ( Fyfe et al, 2008 ), possibly because of its relationship with other processes as common as depersonalization or absorption ( Sass et al, 2018 ; Fernández-León et al, 2020 ).…”

“…However, the sequence of the mediation model could make it possible to explore the relationship of relevant variables and an approach to causality ( Hayes and Preacher, 2014 ), although understood as strictly provisional. Some very important variables for discussing psychosis are also lacking, from negative symptoms to consideration of high negative affect and low positive affect, or facets related to upbringing and stressful situations ( Olvet et al, 2015 ; Fernández-León et al, 2020 ; Healy et al, 2020 ).…”