Correlates of imaginative and hypnotic suggestibility in children

Abstract As an extension of previous research by Braffman and Kirsch (1999) with adults, this study investigated the relationship between suggestibility and hypnotizability in a sample of 44 child psychiatric patients. Participants were assessed for various correlates of imaginative suggestibility while controlling for nonhypnotic suggestibility. Overall, nonhypnotic suggestibility accounted for most of the variance in hypnotizability (r = 0.73; p < 0.001), and vividness and absorption were found to predict unique variance in hypnotizability (r = 0.28; p < 0.001) when nonhypnotic suggestibility was controlled. These results support the view of hypnotic responsiveness as reflecting a continuum of suggestibility and serve to further weaken the contention that hypnosis produces an altered state of consciousness. Copyright © 2003 British Society of Experimental and Clinical Hypnosis