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

Objective: The study's major objective was to explore the role of social workers in building resilience after climate change-related disasters in Zimbabwe.

Method: The study used the descriptive qualitative design, which allowed participants to verbalize the felt distress. Purposive sampling technique was used, and the sample size of 14 participants was determined by the saturation level which occurred when responses were continuously repeated. Semistructured interview questions and focus group guides were used to collect data.

Results: It was found that the loss of lives, property, and infrastructure elicited terrible emotions, memories, and resentment among the survivors. Social workers play a critical role in mobilizing resources and making referrals in the best interest of the clients. The study found that participating in cultural aligned festivals allowed community members to appreciate the beauty of life and dispel the experienced traumatic and depressive episodes.

Conclusion: The survivors, particularly the vulnerable groups such as the children, the elderly, and the disabled, were left in a state of despair and mentally disoriented. Participating in cultural festivals allowed community members to appreciate the beauty of life and dispel the depressive episodes. Social support and connectedness gave the survivors a sense of safety, belonging optimism, and encouragement. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Objective: In response to the growing need for cross-cultural perspectives on mental health, this study investigates and compares childhood trauma, rejection sensitivity, experiential avoidance, loneliness, and social anxiety in Canadian and Turkish general population samples to gain insights into potential cultural variations in mental health outcomes.

Method: The present study included 1,735 participants from the general population in Canada (n = 959; M_age = 20.82; 73.83% female) and Türkiye (n = 776; M_age = 25.01; 80.80% female). Data were collected using self-report measures. Zero-order correlations, two-way multivariate analysis of covariance and analysis of covariance, and hierarchical multiple regression analyses were used to test research questions.

Results: Our findings indicate positive associations among childhood trauma, social anxiety, rejection sensitivity, experiential avoidance, and loneliness in both samples. Notably, participants from Canada scored significantly higher on all these constructs compared to their Turkish counterparts. Furthermore, female participants scored higher on all main variables than males, except for physical abuse, where males reported higher scores.

Conclusion: In the Canadian sample, younger age, female gender, childhood traumas, rejection sensitivity, experiential avoidance, and loneliness were significant predictors of social anxiety. Conversely, in the Turkish sample, younger age, emotional neglect, rejection sensitivity, experiential avoidance, and loneliness were significant predictors of social anxiety. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Objective: The South Asian American (SAA) community often encounters substantial traumas and reports distress after these experiences. Simultaneously, many SAAs underutilize mental health services. Two significant factors contributing to such disparities in access to care are the lack of (a) culturally responsive traumatic stress interventions for SAAs and (b) SAA-specific methodological structures to be used in traumatic stress intervention research.

Method: Thus, we outline a methodological protocol article based on process-oriented insights to develop culturally responsive traumatic stress interventions for SAAs, focusing on centering community voices to understand the experience of trauma and its impacts within the cultural context of this community.

Results: We delineated steps, considerations, and lessons that we learned in the process, specifically how to (a) develop a collaborative team with a specific range of stakeholders and to integrate their input, (b) create and implement a study protocol and data management plan, and (c) devise and roll out a culturally informed participant recruitment and retention protocol.

Conclusions: Using our work in this community as an example, we highlight the strengths of the methodological approach taken and areas that would be important to address in future work with SAAs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Objective: This study aimed to investigate parenting factors that contribute to their children's distress during wartime. Parental distress, war-related dialogue styles, and emotional socialization were examined as potential predictors of children's traumatic stress.

Method: The study included 404 Israeli parents and their children (under 18), utilizing self-report questionnaires and parent-reported measures. Key constructs measured included parental distress (anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms, perceived stress), war-related dialogue styles (modulated disclosure, unfiltered speech, silencing), and emotional socialization (supportive and unsupportive responses).

Results: Findings revealed strong correlations between parental and children's distress. Parents with higher distress showed increased unfiltered speech about the war, associated with elevated traumatic stress symptoms in children. Modulated disclosure predicted lower child traumatic stress symptoms, but only when parental distress was high. Supportive emotional socialization responses were linked to reduced traumatic stress symptoms in children, while unsupportive responses heightened them.

Conclusions: Parental war-related dialogue style and emotional socialization play critical roles in mitigating the psychological impact of war on children. Modulated disclosure and supportive emotional socialization serve as protective factors, particularly in high-stress parental environments. These findings underscore the need for interventions that support parents in adopting effective communication and emotional support strategies during crises. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Objective: Research demonstrates that oppression can produce symptoms consistent with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but traditional trauma assessments do not account for the impacts of oppression. This study addressed this gap by establishing the dimensionality, measurement equivalence, reliability, and convergent validity of the Oppression-Based Traumatic Stress Inventory across two samples.

Method: The samples comprise PTSD treatment study clients (Sample 1; n = 129) and Hispanic-serving institution undergraduate students (Sample 2; n = 227) who completed a series of questionnaires, including the Oppression-Based Traumatic Stress Inventory.

Results: Confirmatory item factor analyses for the 25 ordinal Oppression-Based Traumatic Stress Inventory items were conducted for each sample. Model fit was unsatisfactory for two initial four-factor solutions: one based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition, PTSD symptom clusters and another based on exploratory factor analyses on a previous sample. Given the very high correlations among the factors, however, we refined the structure into three new factors (oppression-related distress and avoidance, fear and blame of others, and general depression and anxiety symptoms) that yielded acceptable fit after adding four error covariances. Measurement invariance testing revealed three of the 25 items had parameters that differed across samples. Excellent reliability was found for all three factors. A higher order factor appeared plausible but was largely noninvariant across samples. Finally, we provide evidence for convergent validity (with measures of standard PTSD, posttraumatic cognitions, depressive symptoms, psychosocial functioning, racial discrimination, gender discrimination, and, to some degree, material hardship).

Conclusions: Our findings strengthen the psychometric evidence supporting this novel measure of oppression-based traumatic stress, an important step in furthering intersectional research on this topic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Objective: The 2023 Veterans Affairs/Department of Defense Clinical Practice Guideline for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD; Veterans Affairs/Department of Defense, 2023) identified medications and specific psychotherapies as recommended or suggested treatments. Yet, more patients with PTSD receive general counseling than these recommended treatments (Cameron et al., 2023). We aimed to understand why different PTSD treatment options were preferred.

Method: This study examined the treatment preferences of 887 people who screened positive for PTSD, along with their reasons for the least and most preferred options (which were analyzed with content analysis).

Results: Evidence-based trauma-focused treatments as a whole were most often ranked first (45.4%), although examined individually, general counseling was most commonly ranked first (31.8%). Having a trauma focus was rarely listed as a reason to not want a treatment. People tended to prefer a treatment because of the content of the treatment or the way it was presumed to work, along with believing it would be a good personal fit or that they were familiar with it. Perceived effectiveness followed. The reasons for not preferring a treatment had to do with presumed aversiveness (including side effects, addiction, etc.) most often, along with a perceived lack of fit or something about the content or mechanism.

Conclusions: When presenting treatment options to patients, it may be helpful to discuss what matters to patients in a treatment and to assess their reasons for preferring a treatment both before and after they have done so, giving an opportunity to correct any misperceptions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Objective: Firefighters experience frequent traumatic events and occupational stressors, increasing risk for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), insomnia, and nightmares, which are frequently comorbid and interrelated. However, firefighter schedules and mental health stigma limit engagement in weekly therapy. The present study was a randomized pilot feasibility trial of an integrated, accelerated, culturally adapted treatment for firefighters with clinically significant PTSD, insomnia, and nightmare symptoms.

Method: Participants (N = 49) were randomized to immediate or delayed treatment. Treatment integrated written exposure therapy for PTSD and cognitive behavioral therapies for insomnia and nightmares and was delivered in a 4-day group therapy "workshop" with one individual session before and after the workshop. Participants completed diagnostic interviews at baseline and 1-month posttreatment and self-report surveys through 3-month posttreatment.

Results: Most indices of program feasibility were positive despite logistical challenges impacting enrollment and treatment uptake. In addition, there were large group by time interaction effects for reductions in symptoms of PTSD (g = 1.70) and insomnia (g = 1.47) and a medium effect for nightmares (g = 0.72). Improvements in symptoms of all three targeted disorders and depressive symptoms were maintained through 3-month posttreatment.

Conclusions: This study supports the efficacy of accelerated, integrated PTSD and sleep disorder treatment. To our knowledge, this is the first controlled study of a culturally adapted mental health intervention for firefighters. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Objective: Racial trauma-the stressful impact or emotional pain that comes from experiencing racism-is associated with risk of anxiety, depression, general psychological distress, and suicidal ideation among Black youth. We adapted and piloted an evidence-based intervention for traumatic stress to address racial trauma among Black youth ages 12-17.

Method: Following the Assessment, Decision, Adaptation, Production, Topical Experts- Integration, Training, & Testing framework, we conducted focus groups, a survey, pretesting of intervention components, and engaged in consultation with topical experts to develop our adapted intervention, Healing through Education Affirmation and Rising Together (HEART). We then evaluated HEART through a mixed-method pilot study with Black youth ages 12-17 (n = 25).

Results: Our pilot study suggested HEART holds promise in reducing discrimination distress, improving racial identity, and improving hope for the future among Black youth. We also observed a nonsignificant trend toward reduced depressive symptoms for HEART participants, suggesting potential benefit worth further study. Findings indicate that HEART is culturally relevant to Black youth and feasible to implement using a task-sharing approach.

Conclusion: As research consistently documents the harm from racial trauma and limited access to mental health supports for Black youth, it is imperative to develop and implement accessible and relevant interventions. This study addressed a gap in existing interventions with an iterative process that centers the experiences of Black youth exposed to racial trauma. The response to the adapted intervention indicates HEART is a promising approach to reduce mental health inequities associated with racial trauma among Black youth. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Objective: Secondary traumatic stress (STS) can have significant deleterious effects on clinicians' personal and professional lives and hinder the quality of care they deliver. However, the STS research is currently limited by methodological inconsistencies in both how it is measured and the populations studied, making it difficult to draw comprehensive conclusions. This review's purpose is to provide an updated overview of how the concept of STS has been measured specifically in therapy-offering clinicians and offer recommendations for future research and clinical practice.

Method: Five databases (APA PsycInfo, Medline, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science) were searched for quantitative, peer-reviewed studies on STS in mental health clinicians published in English up to December 2024. A descriptive metasynthesis summarized means, standard deviations, and score ranges of commonly used measures. A reliability generalization analysis was conducted using extracted internal consistency coefficients.

Results: A total of 49 studies met the inclusion criteria, and seven different instruments used to measure STS were identified. The most popular measures were the Professional Quality of Life Scale (Stamm, 2010) and the Secondary Traumatic Stress Scale (Bride et al., 2004), which assess STS from different perspectives. The reliability generalization analysis suggested acceptable and excellent internal consistencies for these measures, respectively.

Conclusions: At present, no single measure is available to capture the entire domain of STS. It is recommended that the choice for the most appropriate outcome measure is guided by the desired emphasis on STS symptoms. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Objective: Survivors of human trafficking, including commercial sex and labor exploitation, benefit from comprehensive, trauma-informed services, but more research is needed to establish best practices and identify effective models and strategies. The present study explored the lived experiences of seven direct service providers in agencies that support the recovery and development of human trafficking survivors in Kentucky. The aim of this study was to inform our understanding of how trauma-informed care better addresses the needs of human trafficking survivors in health care and social services settings.

Method: Using qualitative, narrative inquiry methods, this study identified trauma-informed models and strategies currently employed in Kentucky agencies that serve trafficking survivors and participants' experiences with successful strategies and barriers to promoting trauma-informed care. The theoretical framework that guided this study is Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory. Participants' stories were collected through artifact presentations, semistructured interviews, guided questionnaires, and a focus group.

Results: Data analysis revealed the themes of (a) education and training, (b) responding to needs, (c) safety and transparency, (d) trusting relationships, and (e) standards of care.

Conclusions: Implications for legislation in Kentucky to implement standards of care and support preventative efforts are explored. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).