Thesis (D.Clin. Psych.) - University of Queensland, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.

The aim of this study was to examine how trauma may affect the development of psychosis. Previous research in the field of Personal Construct Theory has found that people who have a diagnosis of schizophrenia have a poorly elaborated self-concept. This study investigated whether there may be a relationship between trauma and self-elaboration in people who have experienced psychosis. It was hypothesised that more severe trauma in childhood would lead to lower self-elaboration, greater conflict in the self concept and lower elaboration of self when experiencing a traumatic life event in childhood. It was also hypothesised that people would see themselves as less like other people if they had experienced more severe trauma. A sample of 21 people who had experienced psychosis completed repertory grids. The grids included elements of self at different times in one’s life, self in different life events and other people. When childhood sexual abuse was the main grouping variable, the high trauma group had lower self-elaboration, saw themselves as more different to other people and had greater conflict in their self-concept. The findings of the study were discussed in relation to childhood abuse and its impact on self-construction. Limitations of the study were also discussed and related to future research on the relationships between self-concept, trauma and psychosis.

This project developed a model to account for an obesity outcome in children who have posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and whose parents have posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) or PTSD. A literature review provided the basis for the model and covered the areas of childhood obesity, parental PTSS, childhood PTSD, adverse childhood experiences, relational PTSD, ineffective parent support, and the stress response. A model to explain the outcome of obesity in children with PTSD as mediated by parental support provided after a traumatic event was developed: The Parental PTSSChildhood Obesity Model. The literature review supports a relational perspective for viewing child outcomes from trauma. When the relational perspective is applied to parents who themselves are experiencing PTSS, several parent response patterns were supported. These response patterns are considered to detrimentally impact the parent’s ability to provide an environment that is safe, predictable and responsive. Therefore the parent experiencing PTSS will evidence less effective parenting. Thus the child’s environment will be more stressful, increase the child’s symptomology and promote ineffective coping skills resulting in obesity. The strengths, limitations, and contributions of the model are discussed, as well as recommendations made for further research.

This thesis inquiries into trauma, its historical developments, experience, and symptoms. The theoretical part lays stress on post-traumatic stress disorder and its classification and diagnosis for the readers to have an extensive knowledge of trauma. The readers are also presented with the quintessential aftermath of trauma. The practical part adverts to childhood trauma of the main protagonists of The Gathering and The Hiding Place by the authors Anne Enright and Trezza Azzopardi. The intention is to query what happened to these characters, rather than focusing on what is wrong with them. The objective is to see the person behind his or her behaviour. Many studies refer to increasing problems in terms of mental health by children and adolescents associated with early childhood trauma. The aim in what follows is to consider whether the harm to childhood trauma can be remedied or whether childhood trauma persists until old age. KEY WORDS: Childhood trauma; post-traumatic stress disorder; trauma fiction; Enright; Azzopardi; The Gathering; The Hiding Place