Peer-reviewed article
Dissociation as a marker of emotion dysregulation: An examination in adolescent psychiatric inpatients using ecological momentary assessment.
Meret S Brunner, Silvano Sele, Julian Koenig, Ines Mürner-Lavanchy, Johan Bjureberg et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined how dissociation relates to emotion regulation difficulties in 48 adolescents in psychiatric hospitals. Researchers tracked dissociation and negative emotions multiple times per day over five days, alongside measuring stress hormones. The findings suggest dissociation and negative emotions occur together, and that dissociation combined with high stress hormones may temporarily reduce negative feelings.
Key points
- Dissociation and negative affect co-occurred at the same moment (correlation: 0.236)
- No evidence that dissociation led to changes in negative affect over time
- When dissociation and elevated cortisol occurred together, subsequent negative affect was slightly lower
- Emotion regulation difficulties, borderline personality disorder, and childhood trauma did not modify the relationships studied
- Study used hourly measurements over five days in 48 adolescent inpatients (81% female, mean age 15.85 years)
Limitations
The study measures associations at one-hour intervals, which may be too long to capture rapid changes in dissociation and emotion. The findings are from a psychiatric inpatient sample, which may not reflect other adolescent populations.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Dissociation is a transdiagnostic symptom and hypothesized to serve as a short-term regulatory mechanism in response to emotional stress. The present study examined the momentary dynamics between dissociation, negative affect, and cortisol in the day-to-day lives of adolescent psychiatric inpatients. METHODS: Forty-eight adolescents (mean age: 15.85 years, SD: 1.15, 81% female) were recruited from psychiatric inpatient units. Following a diagnostic baseline assessment, participants completed twelve signal-contingent ecological momentary assessments per day over five consecutive days, each separated by one hour, reporting on dissociation and negative affect. Salivary cortisol was sampled concurrently. Data were analysed using Residual Dynamic Structural Equation Modelling. RESULTS: No significant cross-lagged effects between dissociation and negative affect emerged. However, a significant contemporaneous association indicated that these variables co-occurred (st.est. = 0.236, 95%-CI: 0.191-0.280). Neither emotion regulation difficulties, borderline personality disorder nor childhood trauma assessed at baseline significantly moderated the cross-lagged or contemporaneous effects. A small cross-lagged effect of the cortisol × dissociation interaction on negative affect emerged (st.est. = -0.056, 95%CI: -0.081 to -0.028), indicating that higher levels of dissociation in combination with elevated cortisol levels predicted lower subsequent negative affect. DISCUSSION: These findings provide partial support for theoretical conceptualization of dissociation as a marker for emotion dysregulation and underscore the need for studies employing combined psychological and biological assessments with higher sample frequencies than a one-hour interval to more precisely capture the short-lived temporal dynamics among dissociation, affect, and endocrine stress responses.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- Ecological momentary assessment with concurrent cortisol sampling to examine dissociation as a marker of emotion dysregulation
- Population
- 48 adolescent psychiatric inpatients (mean age 15.85 years, 81% female)
Key finding
Significant contemporaneous association between dissociation and negative affect (st.est. = 0.236)
Brunner et al. · PubMed (US National Library of Medicine) · 24 Aug 2026