Fear of happiness among college students: The role of gender, childhood psychological trauma, and dissociation

AIMS: This study aimed to evaluate the fear of happiness among college students and its relationship to gender, childhood psychological trauma, and dissociation. SETTING AND DESIGN: College students were addressed as study population, and a relational screening method was implemented. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Among 184 participants, 93 (50.5%) were women. The Fear of Happiness Scale (FHS), the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), and the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES) were administered to all participants. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Mann–Whitney-U and Student's t-tests were implemented for comparison of groups. Pearson correlation and stepwise multiple regression analyses were conducted to identify associations between variables. RESULTS: There were no differences on DES, FHS, and CTQ total scores between genders. DES was associated with CTQ total scores in both genders. Women had higher scores than men on childhood emotional abuse and fear of “cheerfulness ends up with bad faith.” Compared to nonmembers, female dissociative taxon members had higher scores on all childhood trauma types except sexual abuse, and on all types of fear of happiness except “good fortune ends up with disaster” which was the only type of fear significantly elevated among male dissociative taxon members. A stepwise regression analysis revealed that depersonalization, childhood emotional neglect, and physical abuse predicted fear of happiness among women which was predicted by absorption among men. CONCLUSIONS: There is a relationship between childhood psychological trauma, dissociation, and fear of happiness. Women seem to be more vulnerable in this path of obsessional thinking which affects different realms in male and female genders.