Proneness for and aversion to self-conscious emotion in posttraumatic stress

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Clinical Psychology
• Trauma Studies

Background:

• Self-conscious emotions like guilt and shame are theorized to influence posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
• Proneness to guilt or shame may increase PTSD risk.
• Aversion to or difficulty coping with these emotions may maintain or worsen PTSD symptoms.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the role of guilt and shame aversion in posttraumatic stress.
• To examine whether proneness and aversion to guilt and shame predict posttraumatic stress.

Main Methods:

• 186 participants with clinically significant trauma histories completed measures of posttraumatic stress, guilt/shame proneness, and guilt/shame aversion.
• Negative affect and experiential avoidance were included as covariates.

Main Results:

• Guilt proneness and guilt aversion were not associated with posttraumatic stress.
• Shame proneness was associated with posttraumatic stress, independent of negative affect and experiential avoidance.
• An interaction effect showed shame proneness predicted posttraumatic stress only when shame aversion was high.

Conclusions:

• High shame proneness combined with high shame aversion is linked to increased posttraumatic stress.
• Interventions addressing shame regulation may be beneficial for individuals with PTSD who exhibit these characteristics.