Voice-Hearing in Young People: Distress Factors and Social Relating, 2022

Psychological models in adults have indicated several factors that might play a role in maintaining the distress associated with hearing voices, including negative inter-relating between the hearer and the voices and persecutory beliefs about the voices. Additionally, negative relating with voices can be mirrored in the difficult relationships that hearers have with social others. By contrast, little is known about distressing voice-hearing in young people and its possible links with social relating. This project focused on young people’s experiences of voice-hearing and aimed to provide preliminary evidence on the factors that contribute to voice-related distress and the association between voice-hearing and young people’s social relating. The design involved a cross-sectional survey study of adolescents with distressing voice-hearing (N=34) which tested hypotheses deriving from cognitive-behavioural models of voice-related distress developed with adults. It included comparing this group with a clinical group of young people without voice-hearing experiences (N= 34)to investigate how social relating may differ for young voice-hearers, all receiving care from secondary mental health services (Chapter 3). The project revealed a potential role for styles of relating to voices and beliefs about voices in maintaining distress. Although relating to voices did not mirror the way young voice-hearers related to social others, their overall relating style was more negative compared to non-voice-hearing peers.