title: Effect of trauma onset on personality traits of politically persecuted victims.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The hypothesis that traumatic experiences in early childhood impact personality formation and psychopathology is well known in psychology and psychiatry, but this is difficult to verify statistically in methodological terms. The aim of this study, conducted with politically persecuted Poles, was to establish the influence of the time when trauma is experienced on the development of psychopathological symptoms.
  
  
  METHODS
  The subjects were divided into two groups: those who had experienced trauma before age five (group 1) and those who experienced trauma at an older age (group 2). Subjects in both groups suffered from chronic untreated post-traumatic stress disorder. In order to test the research hypothesis, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 profiles of both groups were compared using Student's t-test, and the Mann-Whitney U-test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Statistically significant between-group differences were found for the F validity scale and the following clinical scales: Hypochondriasis, Depression, Psychopathic deviate, Psychasthenia, Schizophrenia, and Social introversion. All the significantly different scores were higher in the group traumatized in early childhood. People exposed to trauma under age five had profiles similar to those traumatized after age five, but they experienced their symptoms more intensely.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Of clinical significance, higher scores on the psychasthenia, schizophrenia, and social introversion scales, especially on the psychopathic deviate scale, indicated pathology only in the early childhood trauma group. Taken together, these symptoms lead to withdrawal and hindrance of social functioning. This outcome confirms the hypothesis of the influence of various early childhood factors (such as trauma) on personality formation and personality traits in adulthood.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychotherapy, Jagiellonian University Medical College, 31-138, Kraków, Lenartowicza 14, Poland.
authors.forename: Krzysztof
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Rutkowski
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychotherapy, Jagiellonian University Medical College, 31-138, Kraków, Lenartowicza 14, Poland. edith.dembinska@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Edyta
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Dembińska
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine and Gerontology, Jagiellonian University Medical College, 31-531, Kraków, Śniadeckich 10, Poland.
authors.forename: Jolanta
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Walczewska
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000523:psychology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D011044:Poland; D011057:Politics; D012917:Social Adjustment; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000523:psychology*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2; Personality assessment; Political persecution; Post-traumatic stress disorder; Trauma onset in childhood