Objective: This study was designed to explore the relationship between five forms of childhood trauma and medically self-sabotaging behaviors (i.e., the intentional induction, exaggeration, and/or exacerbation of medical symptoms). Method: Using a cross-sectional sample of convenience, 120 psychiatric inpatients were surveyed about childhood sexual, physical, and emotional abuses, the witnessing of violence, and physical neglect, as well as 19 medically self-sabotaging behaviors (i.e., intentional behaviors that represent attempts to sabotage medical care). Results: As expected, in this sample there were high prevalence rates of trauma (62.5% emotional abuse, 58.3% witnessing of violence, 46.7% physical abuse, 37.5% sexual abuse, 28.3% physical neglect). Simple correlations demonstrated statistically significant relationships between sexual abuse and physical neglect and medically self-sabotaging behaviors. Using multiple regression analysis, only physical neglect remained a unique predictor of medically self-sabotaging behaviors. Conclusions: These findings indicate that among psychiatric inpatients there appears to be a relationship between physical neglect in childhood and the generation of medically self-sabotaging behaviors in adulthood. Perhaps physical neglect in childhood contributes to the generation of somatic behaviors in adulthood for the purpose of eliciting caring responses from others.
Coping with Sexual Abuse
