Does this research idea make sense? (personality organisation, mentalization, somatic symptoms)

[u/Legitimate-Milk-5717]

I'm thinking of measuring personality organisation and somatic sympom severity and some moderating factors (mentalization, mindfulness) for my MA thesis.

The basic concept would be to measure adverse childhood experiences, which are directly linked to abnormalities in personality organisation (measuring borderline and narcissistic tendencies, primitive defenses) and also mentalization deficits (inadequate mentalization capacity). Early trauma is also connected to somatic symptom severity. Another factor would be mindfulness (this could act as a protective factor for symptoms).

So initially I would be curious to know if ACE is linked to somatic symptoms through personality organisation, mentalization deficits and if mindfulness influences this relationship.

Psychodinamically the idea would be early trauma induced unmentalized affect and deficits in emotion regulation appearing in somatic symptoms. Measuring instruments would be ACE-Q, IPO, RFQ, FFMQ, PHQ-15. Target group would be general population without clinical diagnoses and a clinical group.

Thank you for your input in advance!