Psychological trauma : theory, research, practice and policy最新文献

Objective: Not all women experience the same changes in depression from pregnancy through the years following childbirth, but the patterns of prenatal and postnatal depression are underexplored. This study investigated the trajectories and associated predictors of depressive symptoms in women from pregnancy through the first 3 years postpartum.

Method: We followed 340 pregnant women from an antenatal clinic in Hong Kong, first at 20-24 weeks of gestation, then at 4 weeks after childbirth, and again at 3 years after childbirth. Pregnant women reported their depressive symptoms whether they had intimate partner violence, health conditions, adverse childhood experiences, family support, and perceived partner involvement. Latent class growth analysis was applied to identify distinct trajectories of depression, and binary logistic regressions were performed to analyze predictors of trajectories.

Results: We found that 26.5% of women showed clinical depressive symptoms at 20-24 weeks of gestation, 9.7% at 4 weeks after childbirth, and 12.6% at 3 years after childbirth. Two classes were identified: a low-stable group (86.2%) and a relapsing/remitting group (13.8%). Women with a history of trauma (i.e., intimate partner violence and adverse childhood experiences) and mental health difficulties were more likely to be classified in the relapsing/remitting group than in the low-stable group. Family support and partner emotional involvement appeared to protect the women from suffering relapsing/remitting depression.

Conclusions: The findings highlight the importance of screening for depression throughout pregnancy and extending several years postpartum. Distinguishing the different trajectories of depression and identifying its associated factors are critical to providing targeted interventions to the most vulnerable women (i.e., a relapsing/remitting group in the present study). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Objective: Readiness among laypeople to classify ordinary adversities as "trauma" may activate cognitive, social, and behavioral patterns that either promote proactive help-seeking or exacerbate mental health difficulties. Clinical understandings of trauma have expanded across recent decades to encompass a wide range of aversive experiences. While some have suggested lay understandings of trauma have expanded in parallel, minimal data directly reveal how the lay public conceptualize trauma. This study sought to establish the range of adversities that laypeople classify as traumatic.

Method: In an online survey, U.K. participants (N = 214) rated the traumatic nature of 80 adversities, half of which represented prototypical precursors of trauma (e.g., physical assault and sexual abuse), and half of which involved other adversities, not typically invoked in clinical definitions of trauma.

Results: Prototypical precursors were judged significantly more traumatic than nonprototypical adversities, but many nonprototypical adversities were also deemed likely to cause trauma (e.g., facial disfigurement or being falsely accused of a crime). Individual variation in the propensity to interpret adversities as traumatic was significantly predicted by participants' age, ethnicity, and political orientation.

Conclusions: This original evidence regarding the content and predictors of lay conceptions of trauma is relevant for sensitive delivery of clinical interventions, tailoring of other supports for populations experiencing adversity, and anticipating social responses to victims of specific adversities. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Objective: The way we interpret information shapes our perception of reality. Predictive processing frameworks propose that the ability to update interpretations based on disconfirming information is key to recovery from potentially traumatic events (PTEs). However, direct evidence for this assumption is scarce and comes from studies using paradigms with low ecological validity.

Method: Here, we investigate the association between inflexible interpretation updating (IIU) and symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in a comprehensive sample (N = 1,238 participants with work-related PTEs) using a scenario-based task, which exposed participants to danger-related situations that are representative of everyday life.

Results: Our preregistered analyses yielded inconclusive findings regarding the relative link between PTSD symptoms and biased interpretations and interpretation updating, respectively. After conducting additional analyses to derive uncorrelated indices of biased interpretations and IIU, we found that both indices independently predicted higher PTSD symptoms. Moreover, IIU was found to moderate the association between work-related PTE exposure and PTSD symptoms such that individuals with highly flexible updating did not show a significant increase in PTSD symptoms with a rise in work-related PTE exposure.

Conclusions: Our findings provide further indications that biased interpretations and IIU may be involved in the pathogenesis of PTSD. In addition, they suggest that interpretation updating may be a promising target for the prevention of PTSD symptoms in contexts of repeated PTE exposure (e.g., in high-risk occupations). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Objective: The goal of this study was to (a) examine the association between childbirth-related posttraumatic stress disorder (CB-PTSD) symptoms and possible risk factors of previous trauma, individual characteristics (neuroticism, anxiety sensitivity, and resilience), type of birth, and birth satisfaction and (b) explore whether birth satisfaction moderates any association between individual characteristics and CB-PTSD symptoms.

Method: This was a longitudinal questionnaire study during pregnancy and postpartum. Pregnant women (N = 396) were recruited from antenatal clinics and completed questionnaires during mid-late pregnancy (Time 1) and 6-12 weeks after childbirth (Time 2). Time 1 questionnaires measured anxiety sensitivity (Anxiety Sensitivity Index), neuroticism (International Personality Item Pool-50, Neuroticism subscale), resilience (Brief Resilience Scale), and trauma history. Time 2 questionnaires measured birth satisfaction and CB-PTSD (Birth-Related and General Symptoms subscales).

Results: Regression analysis showed that previous sexual trauma, higher levels of neuroticism, and lower levels of birth satisfaction predicted higher levels of CB-PTSD symptoms. Anxiety sensitivity and resilience were not significant predictors of CB-PTSD. Additionally, birth satisfaction moderated the relationship between higher neuroticism and higher levels of CB-PTSD (total and general symptoms) and between lower resilience and higher CB-PTSD general symptoms. Effects were stronger when low birth satisfaction was reported.

Conclusions: Individual characteristics and birth satisfaction interact in the development of posttraumatic stress disorder following childbirth, with previous traumatic experiences playing an additional role. These findings can inform screening and care pathways for women at greater risk. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Empirical studies reveal that interpersonal violence victimization is a highly prevalent phenomena in youth and is associated with a host of difficulties, including mental, physical, and behavioral issues. Sleep, a developmentally fundamental process, is implicated in these unfavorable effects. Despite this, little is known about the interplay between interpersonal violence victimization, sleep, and mental health in adolescent girls, who are at greater risk of victimization, sleep problems, and mental health difficulties than boys.

Objective: The aim of the current study was to identify distinct patterns of sleep problems to understand how they are associated with interpersonal violence victimization and key mental health outcomes, namely dissociation and emotional dysregulation.

Method: Latent class analyses were conducted on a sample of 706 adolescent girls aged 14-18 (88% of Canadian descent), who completed an online survey.

Results: Three classes of sleep were identified: poor-, moderate-, and high-quality sleep. Controlling for posttraumatic stress disorder, classes were found to differ regarding childhood sexual abuse, community violence, and emotional abuse. In addition, exposure to community violence was associated with dissociation only among girls in the poor-quality sleep class, indicating a moderation effect of sleep.

Conclusion: The findings of this study, while awaiting replication with a more diverse sample, highlight the continued need to understand the interplay between interpersonal violence and sleep quality, which can help to inform trauma-focused clinical interventions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Objective: This study aimed to examine whether mothers' level of trauma exposure and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms are related to their offspring's cognitive functioning.

Method: Mothers exposed to the 1994 genocide perpetrated against the Tutsi (N = 181) and one of their adult offspring were recruited in Rwanda. Mothers and their offspring answered questionnaires on sociodemographic information, the level of trauma exposure, and PTSD symptoms. They also performed a backward digit span task and a similarity task to assess their working memory and abstract reasoning, respectively. Hierarchical regression models were used to analyze the data.

Results: Mothers' level of trauma exposure, but not PTSD symptoms, was significantly related to their offspring's abstract reasoning performance after controlling for offspring's age, sex, and economic status. The relationship between mothers' level of trauma exposure, PTSD symptoms, and their offspring's working memory performance was not significant. Offspring's education was significantly linked to their working memory and abstract reasoning performance.

Conclusions: The findings demonstrate that the intergenerational transmission of trauma can impact the cognitive functioning of the next generation. These results also illustrate the profound and long-term human impact of mass violence. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Objectives: The transition to motherhood carries the potential for experiencing mental distress alongside positive mental changes such as personal growth. This study sought to expand the scarce knowledge regarding the trajectories of personal growth in the transition to motherhood and to identify multiple patterns of growth and their predictors, such as undergoing fertility treatments, emotion regulation abilities, and background variables.

Method: Four hundred three pregnant nulliparous women were recruited through social media and completed self-report questionnaires in three phases: during the second half of their pregnancy, 3 months after the birth of their first child, and 6 months after childbirth. Latent class growth analyses and growth mixture modeling were used to identify latent subgroups of the trajectory of growth. Stepwise multinomial regression models were used to identify significant predictors of personal growth trajectories.

Results: We identified three trajectories that reflect an increase in personal growth with different starting points and slopes, and one trajectory with a quadratic effect. Age, economic status, physical health, undergoing fertility treatments, impulse control, and emotion regulation strategies differentiated between the different growth patterns.

Conclusions: The study expands the knowledge regarding the heterogeneity of personal growth trajectories in the transition to motherhood and suggests that certain characteristics may predict the chances of developing in certain pathways rather than in others. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Objective: The empirical literature indicates that positive emotional avoidance may play a role in the maintenance and development of posttraumatic stress disorder. While some research has surfaced on posttraumatic stress reactions to racism and/or discrimination, researchers have yet to examine if research findings on emotional avoidance and posttraumatic stress disorder extend to racial trauma. To this end, we examined whether there was a moderating effect of racial trauma symptom severity on the relationship between positive emotional intensity and positive emotional avoidance.

Method: A total of 216 individuals of color were recruited via Prolific (M_age = 33.1 years; 51.3% male; 30.6% Asian, 32.9% African American, 36.6% Latine). A multiple regression model was utilized to explore whether the relationship between positive emotional intensity and positive emotional avoidance depended on racial trauma severity.

Results: There was a significant interaction between positive emotional intensity and racial trauma severity on positive emotional avoidance. The simple slopes analysis showed a significant negative association between positive emotional intensity and positive emotional avoidance when participants endorsed low and moderate (but not high) levels of racial trauma symptom severity. Positive emotional avoidance was the highest at high levels of racial trauma regardless of positive emotional intensity.

Conclusion: Individuals with more severe racial trauma may utilize strategies to avoid positive emotions regardless of positive emotional intensity while individuals with low or moderate race-based traumatic stress avoid low intensity positive emotions more than high intensity positive emotions. These results highlight the importance of addressing positive emotional avoidance in interventions designed to reduce the severity of racial trauma. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Objective: Given the absence of a validated Polish method for assessing childbirth-related posttraumatic stress disorder (CB-PTSD) according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, we aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Polish version of the City Birth Trauma Scale (City BiTS-PL) and investigate its latent factor structure and the links with sensory processing sensitivity and birth satisfaction.

Method: In a cross-sectional descriptive study, a sample of 296 mothers completed an online survey, which included the City BiTS-PL, the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, the Birth Satisfaction Scale-Revised, the Highly Sensitive Person Scale, and the questions about the sociodemographic and pregnancy/birth-related characteristics.

Results: The City BiTS-PL was found to have generally good measurement properties. In confirmatory factor analysis, the two-factor solution achieved the best fit out of the three tested models. The internal consistency was satisfactory for the subscales and the whole scale (Cronbach's α = .61-.91). Convergent validity with the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, Birth Satisfaction Scale-Revised, and Highly Sensitive Person Scale and divergent validity testing indicated robust validity. The prevalence of CB-PTSD in our sample was 6.1%.

Conclusion: The City BiTS is a reliable and valid measure, but difficulties were observed during the analysis in fitting the scale to the models, especially in the context of fitting a four-factor model based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders diagnostic criteria. Therefore, the tool should be considered as a screening, not a clinical, method. Sensory processing sensitivity is positively related to CB-PTSD, shedding light on the importance of temperamental sensitivity to the environment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Objective: This cross-sectional study explored sex/gender differences in the associations between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and intimate partner violence (IPV) with mental health problems (i.e., attempted suicide and mental disorders), including whether sex/gender differences varied by race/ethnicity.

Method: Data were used from participants in the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions in the United States of America (Wave II: 2004-2005). Logistic regressions tested associations between ACEs (i.e., child abuse, child neglect, and child household dysfunction) and IPV or cumulative trauma with mental health problems along with sex/gender and race/ethnicity interactions.

Results: Females who experienced child abuse or three to four cumulative traumas had greater odds of attempted suicide than males with the same experiences. Males who experienced IPV had greater odds of attempted suicide than females who experienced IPV. There were significant sex/gender differences in the associations between cumulative trauma and mental disorders (i.e., mood disorder, anxiety disorder, alcohol use disorder, and nicotine dependence), except posttraumatic stress disorder. For example, females with cumulative trauma had greater odds of substance use disorders. Many sex/gender differences in associations between ACEs and IPV or cumulative trauma with mental health problems varied by race/ethnicity. For example, child neglect was associated with greater odds of attempted suicide for non-Hispanic Black males (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 3.53 vs. AOR = 1.29 for females), whereas no sex/gender differences in this association were revealed for non-Hispanic White or Hispanic adults.

Conclusions: Findings show sex/gender differences in associations between trauma and mental health problems that vary by race/ethnicity and warrant further study. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).