Comparison of Childhood Trauma and Effects of the Support System among University Undergraduates: A Gender-Based Study

Abstract

Objective: To assess burden of childhood trauma among undergraduates and to compare the association of childhood trauma between male and female students. The secondary objective was to compare the effect of social support system amid both genders.
Methodology: The questionnaire-based study was conducted among undergraduates of Medical, Dental, and Physio-therapy institutes of Ibn-e-Sina University, Mirpurkhas after obtaining ethical approval. The validated Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form (CTQ-SF) was used along with the social-support/resilience tool comprising of 28 items and 8 items respectively. For data analysis, SPSS version 32 was used. P-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results: Total n=304 participants were included in study. There was total n=192 (63%) female and n=112 (37%) male students. Majority (n=185-61%) of students lived in hostel. Most of the students were from MBBS (n=107) followed by BDS (n=104) and n=93 from DPT. The burden of childhood trauma was found to be 33.9%. Significantly higher mean scores were observed on subscale of emotional abuse items in male than females at p-value 0.004, and 0.007. To ob-serve the effect of social-support, females scored significantly better on reliance on family and friends (p=0.024) and on self-calming ability (p=0.055), while males more often reported actively seeking help (p=0.001).
Conclusion: Approximately one in three undergraduates had experienced childhood trauma. Male students severely af-fected by physical, emotional, sexual abuse and by self-harm ideation, while revealing weaker perceived family support than their female counterparts.
Keywords: Adverse childhood experiences, Childhood trauma, CTQ-SF, Social support; Resilience.