Does prolonged interpersonal eye gaze evoke state dissociation in subjects with strong early maladaptive schemas? A replication attempt

Previous results suggest that the severity of childhood maltreatment predicts to which degree individuals dissociate after an eye gazing task, and that this association is mediated by their endorsement of certain attachment schemas. However, the previous study relied on dissociation scores assessed after the induction task and could not establish whether these represented an acute increase from baseline. We therefore replicated the previous study while assessing state dissociation levels directly before and after the induction task. In addition, n = 146 healthy young adults were also assessed for their childhood maltreatment history, early maladaptive schemas, and self-concept clarity. Childhood maltreatment severity explained 30% of the variance in early maladaptive schemas. State dissociation levels increased significantly from pre- to post induction task. Mediation analyses did neither support a prediction of this change score by childhood maltreatment nor early maladaptive schemas, so that no mediation was established. Moderation analyses suggested a small effect of self-concept clarity, that does not seem to be of practical significance. In conjunction, the data did not replicate previous results despite sufficient power to detect small-moderate effects. The observed high variability in dissociative reactions might explain this divergence.