Dissociation : Vol. 7, No. 2 (June 1994)

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Dissociation : Vol. 7, No. 2, p. 092-100 : Initial development and validation of the Phillips Dissociation Scale (PDS) of the MMPI
(Ridgeview Institute and the International Society for the Study of Dissociation, 1994-06) Philips, David W.
Previous research supports the view that dissociative tendencies in adulthood are linked to a history of childhood trauma. Such trauma are known to have a persistent affective impact which is reflected symptomatically. Taking symptoms of unresolved grief as an example of the affective consequences of childhood trauma, this study sought to use grief symptoms as predictors of dissociative tendencies in a sample of Australian adults. In conjunction with the basic demographic factors of age and gender, a standardized inventory of grief symptoms accounted for more than half of the variance of dissociation scores. The efficacy of this regression analysis compares very favorably with analyses using childhood trauma as predictor variables. The data are interpreted as supportive of the value of measures of the affective outcomes of childhood trauma in the statistical prediction of dissociation in adulthood.