The roles of cognitive control and coping self-efficacy in posttraumatic stress symptoms following a motor vehicle collision.

Abstract

Objective: Evaluating posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) shortly after trauma offers a more precise understanding of interrelated variables. This study examined how cognitive control performance, assessed after a trauma recall trigger, moderates the relationship between coping self-efficacy (CSE) and PTSS over a 3-month period postmotor vehicle collision.

Method: Motor vehicle collision survivors recruited from emergency departments were assessed 1 week (N = 180), 30 days (N = 104), and 90 days (N = 84) postcollision. Cued cognitive control was assessed at Time 2 using the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and was completed after listening to an audio transcription of the collision. PTSS and CSE self-report measures were administered at each time point.

Results: Mixed-effects modeling showed an interaction of CSE and WCST on PTSS, with relations dependent on time. At Time 1, higher CSE was associated with lower PTSS when WCST performance was high or average. At Time 2, higher CSE was related to lower PTSS across all levels of WCST performance. At Time 3, lower CSE was associated with higher PTSS, when WCST performance was low or average.

Conclusions: Findings highlight self-evaluation processes, cognitive control in the presence of trauma recollection, and time as factors in posttrauma adaptation. Implications for intervention are offered. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).