Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are events that occur during a person’s childhood that can affect their physical, mental, and social health later in life. Abuse, neglect or household disfunction are common events labeled as ACEs to study the effects of childhood trauma. ACEs have been linked to several negative physical and mental health outcomes, such as substance abuse, heart and lung diseases, anxiety and depression. Furthermore, several studies have shown that emotion dysregulation and attachment anxiety mediate the relationships between ACEs and negative health outcomes. Emotion dysregulation and attachment anxiety can also be linked to a commonly studied social aliment, imposter phenomenon. Individuals experiencing imposter phenomenon may feel as though they are undeserving of their personal accomplishments or have achieved them by luck or chance. Emotion dysregulation can lead to a lack of control, or perceived control, over one’s emotions. This lack of control could theoretically lead to feelings of inadequacy and fakeness experienced by those suffering from imposter phenomenon. Likewise, attachment anxiety can lead to fear of abandonment in relationships caused by the similar feelings of inadequacy. The aim of the present research was to therefore determine whether ACEs may predict greater feelings of the imposter phenomenon through emotion dysregulation and attachment anxiety. A total of 464 participants completed measures of ACEs, emotion dysregulation, attachment anxiety, and the imposter phenomenon online in REDCap. A bootstrap (5000 repetitions) mediation analysis conducted in JASP indicated that although ACEs do not directly predict the imposter phenomenon, greater ACEs indirectly predicted greater feelings of being an imposter through both emotion dysregulation and attachment anxiety. That is, the more ACEs one experiences theoretically leads to greater emotion dysregulation and higher attachment anxiety, both of which predict greater feelings of being an imposter. These results suggest that ACEs may disrupt the development of healthy coping mechanisms and regulation strategies that could feed into an inability to recognize one’s abilities and successes. Furthermore, experiencing negative mental and physical outcomes due to ACEs could produce a negative self-worth, leading to feelings of being an imposter. Likewise, anxiety in other aspects of life, such as relationships, could lead to these same feelings. Although the present research suggests that ACEs indirectly predict the imposter phenomenon, future research may show numerous factors impacting the imposter phenomenon with multiple interacting variables. Future research should aim to examine these factors prospectively and in different populations other than the one studied here. As with any self-report research, there could be discrepancies in data reported due to recall and impression management, especially when participants are asked about sensitive subjects, such as ACEs and intimate relationships. Despite these limitations, these results help provide a greater understanding of the effect ACEs and childhood trauma can have on social well-being and can also lead to a better understanding of development of and treatments for the imposter phenomenon.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ETSU/oai:dc.etsu.edu:asrf-2024 |
| Date | 25 April 2023 |
| Creators | Day, Leona R, Blackhart, Dr. Ginette C |
| Publisher | Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University |
| Source Sets | East Tennessee State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Source | Appalachian Student Research Forum |
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