Linking self-disgust, negative affect, and PTSD in sexual assault : An ecological momentary assessment approach

OBJECTIVE: Although self-disgust has been implicated in sexual assault-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), empirical evidence of this association is limited.

METHOD: Participants with sexual assault-related PTSD (n = 19), sexual assault without PTSD (n = 20), and healthy controls (n = 21) completed "trait" measures of disgust proneness, self-disgust, and negative affect (NA; i.e., anxiety and depression). An ecological momentary assessment approach was also employed, where participants reported "state" levels of PTSD symptoms, self-disgust, and NA in the morning, afternoon, and evening for 1 week.

RESULTS: Those with PTSD reported more trait disgust proneness, self-disgust, and NA than those who experienced sexual assault without PTSD and controls. However, those experiencing sexual assault without PTSD and controls did not differ from each other. Participants with a history of sexual assault also experienced higher self-disgust and NA during the week than controls. Those with higher PTSD symptoms during the week also experienced more self-disgust and NA. Similarly, changes in PTSD symptoms were associated with changes in self-disgust and NA during the week. Although a temporal association was found where NA predicted subsequent PTSD symptoms (and vice versa) during the week, a temporal link between self-disgust and PTSD symptoms (or vice versa) was not found.

CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that the link between self-disgust and sexual assault-related PTSD is more correlational than causal. The implications of these findings for understanding how trait and state self-disgust fits within the broader emotional network of sexual assault-related PTSD are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2023

Erschienen:

2023

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:15

Enthalten in:

Psychological trauma : theory, research, practice and policy - 15(2023), 4 vom: 23. Mai, Seite 567-575

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Olatunji, Bunmi O [VerfasserIn]
Cox, Rebecca C [VerfasserIn]
Liu, Qimin [VerfasserIn]
Garcia, Alexa [VerfasserIn]
Jessup, Sarah C [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

Journal Article

Anmerkungen:

Date Completed 24.04.2023

Date Revised 24.04.2023

published: Print-Electronic

Citation Status MEDLINE

doi:

10.1037/tra0001424

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM352000848