**4. Data analyses**

experiences of abuse (emotional, physical, sexual) and neglect (emotional, physical). The short form consists of 28 items, scored on a 5-point (Never True-Very Often True, when growing up) Likert scale. Twenty-five items are equally distributed among five clinical scales: Physical Abuse, Emotional Abuse, Sexual Abuse, Physical Neglect and Emotional Neglect. Three items assess the tendencies of responders to minimize or deny negative childhood experiences, composing the minimization/denial scale. In the present study, the Italian version of CTQ-SF, translated by Petrone and colleagues [55], was administered. The original study of Bernstein [52] demonstrated good internal consistency reliability for each of the CTQ-SF scales, across four heterogeneous clinical and not clinical samples. Cronbach's α ranged respectively from 0.83 to 0.86 for Physical Abuse, 0.84 to 0.89 for Emotional Abuse, 0.92 to 0.95 for Sexual Abuse; 0.61 to 0.78 for Physical Neglect and 0.85 to 0.91 for Emotional Neglect. In particular, in the community sample the reliability ranged from α = 0.61 for the Physical Neglect to α = 0.92 for the Sexual Abuse. For the Italian version, the CTQ-SF showed reliable psychometrics, with good reliability and confirmed structure validity (Sacchi, Simonelli, in preparation). In the present study, the Cronbach's α ranged from 0.51 for Physical Neglect to 0.90 for the Sexual Abuse, confirming that Physical Neglect represents the less reliable scale of the self-report.

114 A Multidimensional Approach to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - from Theory to Practice

**Age** 23.09 (2.98)

Italian 311 (96.3%)

Single 101 (31.1%) Involved 202 (62.2%) Living together 15 (4.6%) Married 6 (1.8%) Separated/divorced 1 (0.3%) Widow 0%

College 58 (17.8%) Professional high school 7 (2.1%) Bachelor degree 254 (77.9%) Master degree 4 (1.2%) Postgraduate degree 2 (0.6%) PhD 1 (0.3%)

The *Experiences in Close Relationships Scale-Revised* (ECR-R; Fraley et al. [53]; Italian version Calvo, 2008) is a 36-item questionnaire that measures the adult romantic attachment style.

**Ethnicity**

**Marital status**

**Education**

**Table 1.** Demographics of the sample (*N = 327*).

First, means, standard deviations and percentile ranks have been calculated for the distribution of PCL-5 scores, in order to attest the rate of Italian female young students showing current PTSD symptoms above the cutoff point. The PCL-5 provisional diagnosis for PTSD was established following the indication of the National Centre for PTSD **http:// www.ptsd.va.gov/**. Namely, it reflects the DSM-5 diagnostic rules according to which are required: at least 1 item in Cluster B scored above 2 point; at least 1 item in Cluster C above 2; at least 2 items above 2 in Cluster D; and 2 items above 2 in Cluster E.

Second, in order to examine the relationship between childhood traumatic experiences, romantic attachment and current post-traumatic symptoms, correlation analyses have been preliminary done on all dimensions and scales of the three measures. Then, moderation and mediation effects have been studied. The hypotheses are displayed in **Figures 1** and **2**.

In order to study moderation effects, a hierarchical regression analysis was built, in accordance with Baron and Kenny recommendations [60]. The interaction between predictors and moderators was created by multiplying CTQ-SF five scales and the two dimensions of ECR-R. In the Step 1, predictors (childhood traumatic experiences) and moderators (avoidance and anxiety) were entered for direct effects analyses; in Step 2, variables of the previous step were considered along with the ten interaction variables for moderating effects, as suggested by Frazier and Barron [61].

**Figure 1.** Moderation model of childhood traumatic experiences, romantic attachment and PTSD.

**Figure 2.** Mediation model of childhood traumatic experiences, romantic attachment and PTSD.

For the mediation effect hypothesized, a path analysis was performed using LISREL 8.8 [62]. PCL-5 total score has been used as dependent variable and the five scales of the CTQ-SF as independent variables. Avoidance and anxiety in romantic attachment have been considered as mediator variables. In a first saturated model, all the five scales of the CTQ-SF were supposed to have both direct and mediated effects on the post-traumatic symptoms. Secondly, from first results, a second model has been performed including the clinical scales of CTQ-SF presenting significant direct and/or mediated effects in the first model.
