Referencia: Antelo, E., Saldaña, O., & Rodríguez-Carballeira, A. (2021). The impact of group psychological abuse on distress: The mediating role of social functioning and resilience. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 12(1), 1954776. https://doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2021.1954776
Autores: Emma Antelo, Omar Saldaña y Álvaro Rodríguez-Carballeira.
Idioma: Inglés.
Resumen: Background. Previous studies indicate that social functioning and resilience can mitigate the adverse psychological effects of interpersonal violence. Unfortunately, the role of these variables has not been studied in survivors of groups, organizations, and communities in which psychological abusive strategies are inflicted to recruit and dominate their members. Objective. To examine the mediating role of social functioning and resilience in the relationship between psychological abuse experienced in the past while in a group and current psychosocial distress and psychopathological symptoms. Method. An online questionnaire was administered to 794 English-speaking former members of different types of groups, 499 victims of group psychological abuse and 295 non-victims. Results. Victims of group psychological abuse reported lower levels of social functioning and resilience than non-victims, and higher levels of psychosocial difficulties and psychopathological symptoms. Serial mediation analyses revealed that social functioning and resilience mediated part of the impact of group psychological abuse on psychosocial difficulties and psychopathological symptoms. Participants who had experienced higher levels of group psychological abuse tend to have poorer social functioning, negatively affecting resilience. In turn, lower levels of social functioning and resilience may increase distress. Conclusions. This research sheds light on the underlying mechanisms involved in the relationship between group psychological abuse and distress suffered following the experience of abuse. Findings provide new insights into the importance of social processes when coping with this kind of traumatic experiences and highlight the need to promote and enhance social adjustment and resilience in survivors of group psychological abuse.
