Journal of Psychiatric Research 151 (2022) 136–143

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Journal of Psychiatric Research

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jpsychires

Emotions and sensory processing in adolescents: The effect of childhood

traumatic experiences
Mi Soon Jeon a, b, Eun Bit Bae c, *
a
Department of Adolescents Counselor, Institute of Nakdonggang Education, Kimhae-si, Republic of Korea
b
Department of Psychology, Keimyung University, Daegu, Republic of Korea
c
Institute of Quantum Biophysics, Sungkyunkwan University, Su-won, Republic of Korea

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Reportedly, maltreated children are more likely to have a mental illness, interpersonal violence, and other social
Childhood trauma behavior problems than those without trauma experience. However, there are few studies regarding childhood
Adolescent trauma and sensory processing relationship and the relationship is not clear until today. To verify the association
Alternative school
between childhood trauma emotions and sensory processing in adolescents is the aim of this study. To gather
Emotion
Emotion regulation sensory processing
traumatized adolescents, we conducted survey questionnaires from six alternative schools and one general high
school in South Korea. A total of 260 students has answered the questions: trauma/parenting/school adaptation
factors, childhood trauma, the difficulty of emotion regulation, positive and negative emotional measure,
shortened self-control measure, and adolescent/adult sensory profile. We analyzed linear regression between
childhood trauma and other emotions/sensory processing in total subjects and conducted group comparisons
between general school and alternative school. With childhood trauma, negative emotion, emotion dysregula­
tion, sensory profile including subscales showed positive correlations. A significant negative correlation was
observed between the self-control scale and childhood trauma score. In group comparison results, trauma factors,
primary caregiver, custody transfer, and school life adaptation factors were significantly higher in alternative
school students (p < 0.002) while the parental relationship did not show a difference. Childhood trauma score,
vision, and tactile were significantly higher in alternative school students. To summarize, our results present a
direct effect of childhood trauma on sensory function in adolescents and was confirmed the importance of family
environments in adolescents.

1. Introduction
1.1. Necessity of childhood trauma research in adolescents
When exposed to violent environments in a growth period, later
when they became adolescents and adults, emotional disorder (Zhang
et al., 2018; Wang et al., 2021), mental illness (Lu et al., 2019; Note­
boom et al., 2021), and worsening these symptoms can be led to suicide
(Yrondi et al., 2021; Biedermann et al., 2021). In addition, as many
research results have been reported that it can lead to the outbreak of
violence in interpersonal relationships and led to an intergenerational
transfer of violence (Haselschwerdt et al., 2019; Kong et al., 2021),
childhood trauma has become a critical social issue as well as an indi­
vidual health problem. The previous studies have shown that childhood
experiences of abuse and violence can lead to violent expressions of
suppressed emotions and anger due to faulty learning during the tran­
sition from adolescence to adulthood. Child victims could become
abusers, indicating the risk of creating a vicious cycle across
generations.
The relationship between childhood trauma and its post symptoms
has been consistently studied. Among the types of posttraumatic stress
disorder (PTSD), complex PTSD has been reported for symptoms
occurring from repetitive exposure to violent trauma in interpersonal
relationships, such as childhood physical abuse, sexual abuse, chronic
spousal abuse, and extended combat exposure (Taylor et al., 2006).
Child abuse and domestic violence are expected to increase in the future
(Petrowski et al., 2021; Usher et al., 2020), and there is a concern
regarding children who have suffered from complex PTSD causing
critical social problems after becoming adults. To prevent this, active
research on abused children and adolescents and research on the

* Corresponding author. Seobu-ro, Jangan-gu, 2066, Suwon-si, Gyeonggi-do, Republic of Korea.

E-mail address: argent.bae@gmail.com (E.B. Bae).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2022.03.054
Received 7 September 2021; Received in revised form 14 March 2022; Accepted 31 March 2022
Available online 8 April 2022
0022-3956/© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
M.S. Jeon and E.B. Bae
effective educational, therapeutic programs is necessary.
1.2. Childhood trauma and alternative school
Educational programs for abused children and adolescents operate
worldwide in schools and governments of many countries support those
schools and programs. In the U.S., reportedly, there are 4000 alternative
education campuses (including both schools and programs) identified
that operate a specified educational program for troubled teens with
mental health or behavioral problems (Foley and Pang, 2006). The
alternative school has been developed since the 1970s in the U.S., and
since the late 1990s in South Korea, and alternative schools are intended
for students to address social problems, such as teenage parenthood or
homelessness, or accommodate maladjusted students.
Several academic and institutional research previously reported
focused on alternative educational programs or behavioral interventions
for troubled youth treating adolescents’ behavior (Gerrish, 2019; Ekdahl
et al., 2019). As far as our present knowledge, still there was no research
conducted for investigating emotion and sensory processing in mal­
treated adolescents from an alternative school. Because the common
alternative school has a high population of traumatized adolescents,
there is a need to understand the emotions, regulation ability, and
sensory processing of traumatized adolescents for providing a suitable
trauma therapeutic program or trauma specified program.
1.3. Necessity of sensory processing research in adolescents with
childhood trauma
While research on sensory processing in PTSD has been unwavering,
studies on sensory processing for traumatized adolescents are so few that
it is difficult to find any research report. The Adolescent/Adult Sensory
Profile conducted by Serafini et al. (2016) showed lower registration,
lower sensory sensitivity, and sensory avoidance among those with
traumatic childhood experiences. Dunn (1977) reported sensory profile
results of children showing that each person has a different threshold,
which is related to adaptive behaviors and emotions in daily life. Abuse
and continued violence can change the threshold of sensory processing,
thus causing problems in those adaptive behaviors and emotions.
While research on sensory processing among children and adults has
been generally conducted, it has rarely been conducted for adolescents,
especially among those with childhood trauma. Through this study, we
aim to obtain answers to two research questions regarding traumatized
adolescents: First, does childhood trauma experience affect emotions
and sensory processing in adolescents? Second, how environmental
factors differently affect the general school students and alternative
school students. Although research on the relationship between sensory
processing and emotions has been increasing recently, research on the
relationship between sensory processing, emotional regulation, and self-
control in traumatized adolescents is still in its early stages. This study is
to give comprehensive perspectives of the relationship between
emotion, emotional regulation, sensory processing, environmental fac­
tors, and childhood trauma experience.
2. Methods
2.1. Participants
Because this study aims at adolescents, surveys were conducted on
280 students aged 13–19 whose age range is middle and high school
students. Half of the students (n = 140) were from a high school and the
rest half of the students (n = 140) were gathered from six alternative
schools. Because the number of alternative schools’ students in Korea is
commonly limited to less than 30 or 60 students according to institute
size regarding national education regulatory matters, we surveyed six
alternative schools to match the number of participants of a general
school. Subjects that repeatedly checked answers on both sides or
137
Journal of Psychiatric Research 151 (2022) 136–143
consistently checked answers on one side or answered incompletely
were excluded (n = 20), considering these as a lack of sincerity. A total
of 260 answered questionnaires were analyzed, excluding non-response
and missing data.
2.2. Procedure
The clinical trial of this study was approved by the Institutional
Review Board of Keimyung University (approval number: 40525-
201806-HR-060-05). After approval, from April to December 2019, a
questionnaire survey was conducted at one general high school and six
alternative schools in the K, B, and D state in South Korea. Since there
were relatively fewer students in alternative schools, the same number
of students were recruited from the general school as that from the six
alternative schools. The investigation was carried out in accordance
with the latest version of the Declaration of Helsinki. After written and
oral information was given by counselors, written informed consent was
obtained from all the participants. Total 260 participants responded to
the questionnaire themselves under accompanying the counselor after
the subject was fully informed through the counselors’ explanation.
2.3. Socio-demographic characteristics
The environment of students while growing up was investigated
through questions on childhood trauma, parenting background, and
school adaptation. Questions on childhood trauma consisted of trauma
type, number of traumatic experiences, and assailant type. Questions on
family background consisted of primary caregiver type, number of
custody transfers, and parental relationships. Questions on school
adaptation consisted of attendance and in-school disciplinary experi­
ence. All the questions were multiple-choice.
2.4. The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS)
The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) developed by
Watson et al. (1988) was used to evaluate the positive and negative
emotions of adolescents. The questionnaire consisted of 10 questions on
each positive and negative emotion and was rated using a five-point
Likert scale.
2.5. The difficulties in emotion regulation scale (DERS)
A Korean version of the difficulties in emotion regulation scale
(DERS) which was originally developed by Gratz and Roemer (2004)
was used to assess students’ emotion dysregulation (Abravanel and
Sinha, 2015; Fowler et al., 2014). The questionnaire consisted of 36
questions on a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (almost never, 0%–
10%), to 5 (almost always, 91%–100%). The higher total scores indicate
a higher degree of impairment in emotion regulation.
2.6. The childhood trauma questionnaire (CTQ)
A modified, Korean version of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire
(CTQ) developed by Bernstein et al. (1997) was used to measure
childhood abuse and neglect. It consisted of 28 multiple choice questions
on a five-point Likert scale, including five questions each on emotional
abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional neglect, and physical
neglect, and three questions on validity measures for false negatives.
2.7. The Brief Self-Control Scale (SCS)
The Brief Self-Control Scale developed by Tangney et al. (2004) and
modified in Korean was used to measure self-control ability. It consisted
of 13 questions and was rated using a five-point Likert scale.
M.S. Jeon and E.B. Bae Journal of Psychiatric Research 151 (2022) 136–143

2.8. Adolescent/adult sensory profile (AASP)
The Korean version of the Adolescent/Adult Sensory Profile (AASP)
developed by Dunn et al. (2002) was used to evaluate students’ sensory
processing in daily life. It consisted of 60 questions on a five-point Likert
scale in six sensory domains: smell/taste (8 questions), tactile (13
questions), vision (10 questions), auditory (11 questions), movement (8
questions), and activity (10 questions).
2.9. Statistical analysis
Statistical analyses were conducted in three different ways: First,
multivariate general linear model analysis was conducted in a total of
260 participants for observing a linear relationship between childhood
trauma experiences and other emotions and sensory processing.
Confounder factors: age and gender (see Table 1) were included in the
general linear model analysis as covariates considering the significant
results in age (p = 0.001, Table 2). Second, growth environmental fac­
tors were compared between the general school students (n = 125) and
alternative school students (n = 135) using the chi-square test. Third, we
compared the SCS, PANAS, DERS, CTQ, and AASP of students between
the general school and alternative schools using the independent t-test.
All statistical analyses were performed via SPSS Statistics ver.26, IBM.
3. Results
3.1. Relationship between childhood trauma and emotion/sensory
processing
The childhood trauma questionnaire scores showed significant
relation with negative emotion, DES, SCS, and six subscales of AASP
(Table 1). While SCS showed negative linear relation with CTQ, other
scales, negative emotion, DES, and AASP including subscales presented
a significant positive linear relationship. Only positive emotion did not
show a significant association with childhood trauma score (Fig. 1).
When considering R-square value, the total score of AASP showed the
highest linear relationship with CTQ (R2 = 0.426). Among subscales of
AASP, vision, auditory, tactile showed high linear correlations (R2 >
0.370, Fig. 2).
different between groups, a high school, and alternative schools.
Because the students at alternative schools in Korea consisted of middle
school students and high school students regarding the national edu­
cation system matters. For this reason, age and gender were counted as
covariates in the general linear analysis.
Childhood trauma factors: The chi-square analysis results of all the
childhood trauma factors (e.g. trauma experience, trauma type,
assailant type) showed significant differences between school groups (p
< 0.002, Table 2). The students from alternative schools had a higher
rate of experiencing childhood trauma (69.6%, n = 94) than the general
high school (48.8%, n = 61). Regarding the number of trauma experi­
ences, zero to single experienced students were higher in the general
school than alternative schools, from two or more, alternative school
students were higher than general school students (p < 0.000, Table 2).
There was no dominant trauma type shown in the general school, while
physical violence was highest in the alternative school group. As for the
type of perpetrator, parents were the most common for students from
both the general high school (n = 6, 4.8%) and alternative schools (n =
22, 16.3%), while the second was an acquaintance, reported by 17
(12.6%).
Parenting factors: We found that the parental relationship did not
correlate with school type (p = 0.813, Table 3). Unlike the parental
relationship results, students who responded to “parents” as primary
caregivers were significantly higher rate in general school, who
responded to “others” as primary caregivers were higher in the alter­
native school group (p = 0.004). The number of custody transfers, a
related factor of primary caregivers, also showed a strong significance
(p < 0.001); who had experienced custody transfer was over twice in
alternative school students (n = 83, 61.5%) than in the general school
students (n = 40, 32.0%).
School adaptation: Both school life factors, school attendance and the
number of disciplinary experiences, showed a significant correlation (p
< 0.001, Table 3) with school groups. While no student from the general
school reported the experience of dropping out the school, eleven stu­
dents for alternative schools, with a rate of 8.1%. As for the disciplinary
experience, 4% of the students (n = 5) from the general school and
25.2% (n = 34) from alternative schools answered positively.
3.3. Comparison of emotions and sensory processing between school
groups

3.2. Comparison of traumatic experiences between general and
alternative schools
Socio-demographic factors: Data from 125 students from alternative
schools (48.1%) and 135 students from the general school (51.9%) were
analyzed (Table S1 in Supplementary Information). There were 149
(57.3%) boys and 111 (42.7%) girls. Considering comparison results
(Table 2), both two groups seemed that the participants were recruited
regardless of sex (p = 0.316). The age population was significantly
Among the five measurements, PANAS, K-DERS, CTQ, SCS, and
AASP, only the CTQ was significantly higher in alternative school stu­
dents (p < 0.001, Table 4, Fig. 3). Although no significant interaction
was detected between the total score of AASP and school groups (p =
2.03), when we analyzed the subscales of sensory processing, the visual
and tactile scales were significantly higher in the alternative schools’
group than in the general school group (p < 0.03).
4. Discussion

Table 1 As observing results of the linear correlation between childhood

The results of general linear model. p < 0.05*, p < 0.01**, p < 0.001***. trauma experience, emotion, and sensory processing, which is the first
Questionnaire Regression coefficients aim the study, the higher the childhood trauma score, the more signif­
R2 adjusted R2 df F p icant the positive linear correlation with negative emotions, difficulty in
emotional regulation, and sensory processing scores in adolescents. This
Positive emotion 0.272 0.076 53 1.386 0.058
Negative emotion 0.378 0.211 53 2.261 0.000***
is consistent with the results that traumatic experience was significantly
Difficulty Emotion Regulation 0.326 0.145 53 1.802 0.002** positively correlated with negative emotions and emotional regulation
Scale difficulties (Berfield et al., 2021; Kulkarni et al., 2013). Furthermore, a
Self-control scale 0.329 0.149 53 1.825 0.002** study explaining the cause of this phenomenon through gene poly­
AASP Taste, smell 0.313 0.128 53 1.690 0.005**
morphism of BDNF Val66Met was also published (Bîlc et al., 2018). In
Movement 0.282 0.088 53 1.458 0.034*
Vision 0.377 0.209 53 2.245 0.000*** this study, it was confirmed that the higher the childhood trauma score,
Tactile 0.370 0.201 53 2.184 0.000*** the significantly lower the adolescent’s self-control ability, which also
Activity 0.323 0.141 53 1.776 0.003** supports the results of previous studies (Xie et al., 2020; Yang et al.,
Auditory 0.374 0.206 53 2.220 0.000*** 2021; Simmen-Janevska et al., 2015; Zhang et al., 2021).
Total score 0.426 0.272 53 2.759 0.000***
Few studies have been conducted on the relationship between

138
M.S. Jeon and E.B. Bae
Fig. 1. Linear regression results between CTQ and emotions. CTQ: Childhood trauma questionnaire, PA: Positive affect, NA: Negative affect, K-DERS: Korean version
of difficulty of emotion regulation scale, SCS: Self-control scale.
childhood trauma and sensory processing, although recently published
Karaca Dinç et al. (2021) reported that childhood trauma had a positive
correlation with sensory processing sensitivity and that there was also a
positive correlation between sensory processing sensitivity and psy­
chopathological symptoms. Levy et al. (1995) reported that 79% of
traumatized children exhibited sensory processing dysfunction, 84% of
touch and 47% of taste/smell. In the results of this study, including a
total score of sensory processing, there was a significantly positive linear
relationship in taste/smell, vision, auditory, tactile, and activity. In
comparison between school groups, CTQ, vision and tactile were
significantly higher in alternative school students. This results suggests
that the greater the childhood trauma, the more sensitive the senses.
When children and adolescents are abused by close relatives, such as
family, and/or they are physically abused, the traumatic experience is
perceived through sight, auditory, and touch, and the repeatedly accu­
mulated fear of abuse and violence is felt through the body (Harricharan
et al., 2021). In this cognitive process of trauma, those senses have a
great effect on recognizing and accepting childhood trauma. Based on
Dunn’s model (Dunn, 1977), it has been reported in previous studies
that sensory organs exhibit hypersensitivity to external sensory stimuli
as a post-traumatic syndrome (Harricharan et al., 2021; Engel-Yeger
et al., 2013), these theories and symptoms well explain the results of this
study.
In the comparison between school groups, all three trauma factors
(number of trauma, type of trauma, and type of perpetrator) were
significantly higher in the alternative school students. (χ2 = 21.84, p =
0.000). Parenting factors results show that the change in the primary
caregiver (due to reasons such as divorce), the number of custody
transfers (multiple caregivers with frequent changes in the parenting
environment), and the parental relationship have a strong relationship
139
Journal of Psychiatric Research 151 (2022) 136–143
with childhood trauma. Because it is important to adolescents that the
number of changes of parents/caregivers and parental relationships, this
result suggests that consistent parenting by a single, trustworthy care­
giver can have a positive effect on the emotional development of ado­
lescents. As attempting to understand and classify trauma, Kira et al.
(2012) mentioned that, in addition to traumatic events, abandonment
by parents during childhood, divorce, foster care, and frequent changes
in primary caregivers added to the negative effects from a develop­
mental perspective. The results of this study support the claim that those
poor parenting environments can be redefined as a threat to psycho­
logical safety.
The results of school life, school attendance and disciplinary expe­
rience, suggest that adolescents with childhood trauma experiences
have difficulties adjusting to school life. Family environment variables
are fundamental factors for domestic violence, such as parental conflict,
problematic communication with parents, negative parenting attitudes,
experiences of family violence and abuse, sexual abuse, and violence
between parents (Coohey, 2006; Hindley et al., 2006). And those re­
lationships between parents and adolescents, between primary caregiver
and adolescents are widely known to be crucial for school adjustment
(Sporakowski and Eubanks, 1976).
This study has several limitations: First, although our original study
aim was to compare growth environmental factors and emotional/sen­
sory processing between traumatized adolescents and non-traumatized
adolescents, due to the limitations of accessibility, our study could not
organize a group with only traumatized adolescents. We approach this
matter through national and public alternative schools operated for
school maladjustment students and adolescents with behavioral prob­
lems, so the authors were able to recruit more than half of traumatized
adolescents. Second, because of the institute’s structural limitations, the
M.S. Jeon and E.B. Bae
Fig. 2. Linear regression results between CTQ and AASP. CTQ: Childhood trauma questionnaire, AASP: Adult/Adolescent sensory profile.
age of participants was not evenly recruited, and this matter was solved
including age and gender as covariates in multivariate linear analysis.
All the general linear models showed significant results except for pos­
itive emotion, but the overall R-square value was rather low (0.271 < R2
< 0.427). This is considered because the number of students who did not
experience trauma was more than 40% of the number of subjects.
Through further research, it will be possible to more accurately evaluate
the correlation between factors by organizing a group based on the
trauma experience as subject inclusion criteria, collecting the subjects,
and conducting research on a large number of students.
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Journal of Psychiatric Research 151 (2022) 136–143
5. Conclusion
This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of childhood trauma
experience on emotions and sensory processing in adolescents. Our re­
sults show that childhood trauma experience was strongly positively
associated with negative emotion, emotion dysregulation, and sensory
processing including subscale of taste/smell, vision, auditory, tactile,
and activity, while significantly negatively associated with self-control
ability (p < 0.01).
The second aim was to explore how and to what extent environ­
mental factors affect general school students and alternative school
students. Our group comparison results show that primary caregiver and
M.S. Jeon and E.B. Bae Journal of Psychiatric Research 151 (2022) 136–143

Table 2 adolescence.
Trauma comparison results between two school types. The percentage is rep­ By presenting statistical results on frequent abuse expose in alter­
resented based on participants’ each group number. p < 0.01**, p < 0.001***. native schools through this study, the necessity of strengthening parent/
Factor Category General Alternative χ2 p guardian education in alternative schools can be raised. Moreover, the
(n = 125) (n = 135) results can be used as basic data to establish standards for the imple­
Sex Man 76 73 (54.1%) 1.2 0.316 mentation of parental education and guardian education for adoles­
(60.8%) cents. They can also help to develop an effective psychological program
Woman 49 62 (45.9%) in the future for the treatment of psychological and emotional symptoms
(39.2%)
in adolescents exposed to childhood trauma.
Age 13 0 (0) 4 (3.0%) 20.88 0.001**
14 0 (0) 12 (9.0%) To summarize, this study is the first to report the effect of childhood
15 17 29 (21.8%) traumatic experiences on sensory processing in alternative school stu­
(13.7%) dents. And the results of this study comprehensively present the main
16 50 43 (32.3%) factors of childhood trauma and the effects of trauma on adolescents by
(40.3%)
17 29 24 (18.0%)
analyzing environmental factors, emotional factors, and sensory
(23.4%) processing.
18 27 20 (15.0%)
(21.8%) Author contributions
19 1 (0.8%) 1 (0.8%)
Number of No 64 41 (30.4%) 21.84 0.000***
childhood (51.2%) Mi Soon Jeon is the first author of this article, mainly contributing to
trauma 1 39 35 (25.9%) the conceptual process and conducting the entire clinical trial. She ac­
(31.2%) quired and interpreted the survey data. Dr. Bae is the corresponding
2–3 11 28 (20.7%) author of this article. She conducted a statistical analysis and interpreted
(8.8%)
the data, and mainly contributing toward writing, reviewing, and
Over 4 11 31 (23.0%)
(8.8%) finalizing the article, including proofreading.
Childhood None 112 88 (65.2%) 21.51 0.000***
trauma (89.6%)
type Verbal abuse, 3 (2.4%) 11 (8.1%)
Neglect
Domestic 3 (2.4%) 9 (6.7%)
Table 4
violence
Physical 2 (1.6%) 14 (10.4%) The comparison results of emotion and sensory processing between general and
violence alternative school students. p < 0.05*, p < 0.001***.
Sexual abuse 2 (1.6%) 5 (3.7%) Questionnaire School comparison
Emotional 3 (2.4%) 6 (4.4%)
abuse t P
Assailant None 112 88 (65.2%) 23.97 0.000***
Childhood trauma − 4.16 0.000***
type (89.6%)
Positive emotion 1.18 0.241
Nurtures, 6 (4.8%) 22 (16.3%)
Negative emotion − 1.48 0.140
Parents
Emotion control -.76 0.449
Brothers/ 1 (0.8%) 2 (1.5%)
Difficulty
Sisters
Self-control scale 1.13 0.262
Acquaintance 2 (1.6%) 17 (12.6%)
Sense of taste/smell -.44 0.659
Stranger 1 (0.8%) 1 (0.7%)
Movement − 1.04 0.300
Others 3 (2.4%) 3 (2.2%)
Vision − 2.19 0.029*
Tactile − 2.34 0.020*
Activity -.36 0.720
custody transfer are critically effect to alternative school students than Auditory .24 0.814
the relationship between parents, and this indicates the importance of a Sum of Sensory profile − 1.28 0.203
single, consistent primary caregiver during childhood and/or

Table 3
The parenting environments and school adaptation comparison between two school types. The percentage is represented based on participants’ each group number. p
< 0.01**, p < 0.001***.
Factor Category General (N = 125) Alternative (N = 135) χ2 p

Primary caregivers Parents 85 (73.3%) 65 (54.6%) 8.85 0.004**

Others 31 (26.7%) 54 (45.4%)
Number of custody transfer None 83 (66.4%) 51 (37.8%) 31.04 0.000***
1 28 (22.4%) 51 (37.8%)
2 6 (4.8%) 29 (21.5%)
3 5 (4.0%) 1 (0.7%)
Over 4 1 (0.8%) 2 (1.5%)
Parental relationship Married 93 (74.4%) 85 (63.0%) 1.81 0.813
Separated 4 (3.2%) 6 (4.4%)
Divorced 19 (15.2%) 25 (18.5%)
Cohabited 1 (0.8%) 1 (0.7%)
Bereaved of mother or father 7 (5.6%) 9 (6.7%)
School attendance Attending 125 (100%) 123 (91.1%) 11.65 0.001**
Discontinued 0 11 (8.1%)
Number of disciplinary experience No 120 (96.0%) 99 (73.3%) 24.12 0.000***
1–2 5 (4.0%) 25 (18.5%)
3–4 0 6 (4.4%)
Over 5 0 3 (2.2%)

141
M.S. Jeon and E.B. Bae Journal of Psychiatric Research 151 (2022) 136–143

Fig. 3. Box plot represented group comparison results between general school and alternative school. Blue color: General school, Red color: Alternative school. p <
0.05*, p < 0.001***

142
M.S. Jeon and E.B. Bae
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare no competing interests.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.
org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2022.03.054.
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