Association between fear of intimacy and childhood abuse in college students

Objective:To explore the relationship between fear of intimacy and childhood trauma in college students,in order to provide a basis for prevention and intervention of fear of intimacy. Methods: Totally 220 college students w ere recruited. Their fear of intimacy and childhood trauma w ere assessed w ith the Fear of Intimacy Scale( FIS) and Childhood Trauma Questionnaire( CTQ-SF, including five subscales, namely, emotional abuse, physical abuse,sexual abuse,emotional ignore and body ignore) respectively. Results: The FIS scores w ere higher in male college students [( 93. 2 ± 22. 5) vs.( 86. 2 ± 20. 1),P 0. 05],non-only children [( 95. 4 ± 21. 2) vs.( 81. 4 ± 19. 2),P 0. 001],and those w ithout love experience [( 95. 1 ± 20. 7) vs.( 84. 9 ± 21. 1),P 0. 001]. The rate of the college students' emotional ignore in childhood trauma w as the highest( 77. 9%),and the rate of other childhood trauma w as body ignore( 73. 7%), emotional abuse( 69. 5%), physical abuse( 19. 7%), and sexual abuse( 19. 2%) in order from high to low. The FIS total scores w ere significantly positively correlated w ith the CTQ-SF total scores and the factor scores of sexual abuse,body neglect and emotional abuse( r = 0. 25,0. 32,0. 28,0. 15; Ps 0. 05). After controlling for demographic variables,sexual abuse and body ignore had a positive predictive role on fear of intimacy( β = 0. 17,0. 16), and explained 17. 6% of the variance. Conclusion: It suggests that childhood trauma may be an important factor related to fear of intimacy,and childhood abuse has a negative effect on intimate relationships.