The effect of childhood traumatic experiences on emotion regulation and adult attachment styles in early adulthood

Abstract

Traumatic occurrences occur frequently in the lives of individuals. Childhood trauma can have an effect on a person's adulthood. In early adulthood, each person typically forms deep ties with others. Emotional regulation and adult attachment style reveal each individual's aptitude or unwillingness to form close relationships. This study intends to assess the impact of childhood traumatic events on emotion regulation and aspects of adult attachment style (secure, preoccupied, dismissive, and terrified) in Malang among young adults. This study employs a quantitative methodology and causal relationship design. Three psychological measuring instruments were used to collect data: a childhood traumatic experiences scale based on the World Health Organization Adverse Childhood Experiences International Questionnaire (0.742), an emotion regulation scale based on the Interpersonal Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (=0.891), and an adult attachment style scale based on the Attachment Styles Questionnaire (>0.750 on each dimension). Using simple linear regression, the influence of research variables was determined by analyzing the data. The results indicated that childhood traumatic events had an effect on emotional regulation (p<0.05), but no effect on adult attachment style in Malang during early adulthood.