Childhood Experiences, Recent Traumatic Experiences and Meta-cognition as Correlates and Predictors of Passive-aggressive Behaviour among Clinical Psychology Trainees of India

Background: Passive-aggressive behaviour, categorised as an immature defense mechanism, has long been studied in researches related to workplace, due to its negative impact on overall work environment and work productivity. It has been defined as a pattern of passive hostility and an avoidance of direct communication (Schanz, et. al., 2021), and is divided into two types as per research: others-directed, and self-directed. The development of such defense systems is often influenced by traumatic or negative experiences in childhood, recent daily stressful events considered as traumatic, and is often regulated by benevolent experiences in childhood and development of adaptive meta-cognitive abilities or functions. This study focuses on clinical psychology trainees, who are dealing with individuals experiencing mental health issues and illnesses. They undergo rigorous and demanding training course which requires them to constantly shift roles: as a student, a researcher, or a therapist; this causes high amounts to stress in them often considered as traumatic in nature. Thus, engaged in mental health care profession, it is important to study the above-mentioned factors in the development, maintenance or regulation of passive-aggressive behavior. Method: Purposive and snowball sampling methods were used to select a total of 107 participants from various RCI recognized institutions across India conducting MPhil, PsyD and PD in Clinical Psychology courses across India. Results: Correlation and multiple regression analysis revealed a significant positive correlations and significant predictions between childhood traumatic experiences and recent traumatic experiences with passive aggressive behaviour. Meta-cognition and Benevolent childhood experiences revealed significant negative correlation with passive aggressive behaviour. Gender differences analyzed via Mann Whitney U rank sum test revealed that Male trainees engaged in passive-aggressive behaviour, especially self-directed passive aggressive behaviour more significantly than female trainees. Conclusions: The use of passive-aggressive behaviour was more significantly prevalent in the male clinical psychology trainees than female trainees; and both childhood and recent traumatic experiences were found to be positively influencing the same, and benevolent childhood experiences and meta-cognitive functions were found to be regulating the behaviour.