Adverse Childhood Experiences and Symptom Severity in Social Anxiety Disorder: The Role of Emotion Regulation

Abstract

In this study, the relationship was examined of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) with difficulties in emotion regulation and symptom severity in individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD). The study included 71 patients diagnosed with SAD and a healthy control group of 73 subjects. Data for all the participants were collected using a sociodemographic data form, the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale, the Adverse Childhood Experiences-Turkish Form scale, and the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale-16. The study results showed a higher probability of ACEs and difficulties in emotion regulation in the SAD group than in the control group. The difficulties in emotion regulation in the SAD group were correlated with symptom severity and these difficulties were found to play a mediating role between trauma and symptom severity. It was emphasized that emotion regulation skills were an important factor in the treatment of SAD patients. It can be suggested that therapies and interventions to develop emotion regulation skills could be effective in the management of SAD symptoms. It was thus concluded that ACEs and difficulties in emotion regulation are associated with SAD symptoms and should be taken into consideration in treatment. This study emphasizes the importance of emotion regulation skills for SAD treatment and can be considered to be of guidance for future studies.