Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether overgeneral autobiographical memory differs according to the level and type of adverse childhood experience and examine the mediating effects of overgeneral autobiographical memory on the relation between adverse childhood experiences and post-traumatic stress symptoms. An online-based autobiographical memory test and survey were conducted April to June 2021 and data from 130 participants were analyzed. An independent samples t-test result showed that groups experiencing high levels of adverse childhood experiences showed a higher level of overgeneral autobiographical memory than those experiencing low levels of adverse childhood experiences. The adverse childhood experience types were categorized into abuse (n=22), general trauma (n=8), multi-type trauma (n=44), and non-experience (n=23), and one-way ANOVA and results showed that the multi-type trauma group had a difficulty recalling specific memories compared to the group with no adverse experience. Finally, PROCESS Macro analysis indicated that adverse childhood experiences were related to high levels of overgeneral autobiographical memory, which in turn, was related to high levels of post-traumatic stress symptoms. This study’s results suggest that reducing overgeneral autobiographical memory may mitigate post-traumatic stress symptoms in individuals with adverse childhood experiences.