title: The Relationship Between Gender, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder from Past Trauma, Alexithymia and Psychiatric Co-morbidity in Chinese Adolescents: A Moderated Mediational Analysis.
abstract: This study focused on a group of Chinese adolescents and examined whether the degree of alexithymia would mediate the effect of PTSD from past trauma onto psychiatric co-morbidities and whether gender differences would moderate the mediational effects of alexithymia. Three hundred and twenty-six adolescents were recruited from two schools and completed the Posttraumatic Stress Diagnostic Scale, General Health Questionnaire-28 and Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20. The results showed that 54 % had no trauma in their lives; 10, 21 and 15 % met the criteria for full, partial and no-PTSD respectively. After adjusting the number of traumatic events, difficulty identifying feelings mediated the path between PTSD from past trauma and psychiatric co-morbidity. Gender moderated the mediational effect of difficulty identifying feelings. To conclude, adolescents can develop PTSD symptoms and psychiatric co-morbidity following exposure to a traumatic event. For both males and females, difficulty getting in touch with feelings can influence the impact of PTSD onto psychiatric co-morbidity.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Zhuo Sheng
authors.initials: ZS
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Educational Psychology, Faculty of Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Ho Tim Building, Shatin, NT, Hong Kong. man.chung@cuhk.edu.hk.
authors.forename: Man Cheung
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Chung
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D015897:Comorbidity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D000067073:Psychological Trauma / Q000523:psychology*; D012737:Sex Factors; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Alexithymia; Gender differences; Moderated mediation; PTSD