Unpacking associations between trauma types and schizotypy dimensions in a community sample

Interpersonal trauma (IT; intentionally harming another individual), is an established risk factor for psychosis-spectrum symptoms. However, few studies have investigated whether differential risk based on trauma type (IT versus non-IT) extends across major dimensions within schizotypy. Furthermore, it remains unclear whether increased risk associated with IT reflects the nature of the trauma or a ‘dose’ effect from accumulation of trauma, as IT occurs more often. Aiming to inform risk assessments, we employed a large community sample ( N = 506) to address these gaps. A schizotypy measure distinguished cognitive perceptual (CP), disorganized (DO), constricted affect/affiliation (CA), and excessive social anxiety (SA) factors. Using participant report of IT and non-IT, an analysis of variance approach examined schizotypy associations with each trauma type and their co-occurrence. We then tested how adding cumulative trauma impacted results. We hypothesized IT would be associated with schizotypy factors relevant to social threat (SA; CP which includes paranoia), even after controlling for cumulative trauma. While IT was robustly associated with elevations on all schizotypy factors, above and beyond the effect of non-IT, cumulative trauma still added significant explanatory power particularly for CP and to a lesser extent DO. Interestingly, for SA, only IT showed significant associations, even when cumulative trauma was added. Results remained when controlling for demographics, general psychopathology, and cannabis use. Our findings underscore the importance of both trauma type and trauma dose when assessing risk for schizotypy. Future work should investigate mechanisms by which exposures may contribute to differential symptom expression.