Vulnerability to somatic symptoms in adulthood as a result of abused childhood

ABSTRACT

The research was conducted to investigate the vulnerability to somatic symptoms in adulthood as a result of abused childhood. In the light of literature review, it was hypothesized that adults who had been abused in childhood will be more vulnerable to somatic symptoms as compared to those adults who had not been abused in childhood. In order to measure abused childhood, a checklist questionnaire was prepared after conducting pilot study, where as Symptoms Assessment - 45 scale was selected for measuring somatic symptoms of adults. The sample for the present research comprised of ninety seven [97] adults, 50 males and 47 females. Their ages ranged between 18 to 26years. Checklist questionnaire and SA-45 administered on a large population, than on the basis of cut off scores non abused and abused groups were identified. t-test and other descriptive statistics were applied for analyzing the data. For interpreting the results, 0.05 level of significance was set. The hypotheses have significantly proved [f=4.909, df= 95, p< 0.001] that the adults who had been abused in childhood have somatic symptoms later in life as compared to those adults who had not been abused in childhood