Patterns of social-affective responses to trauma exposure and their relation to psychopathology

Traumatic event exposure is a risk factor for the development and maintenance of psychopathology. Social-affective responses to trauma exposure (e.g. shame, guilt, revenge, social alienation) could moderate this relationship, but little is known about their relevance for different types of psychopathology. Moreover, the interplay of different social-affective responses to trauma exposure in predicting psychopathology is poorly understood.

In a sample of N = 1321 trauma-exposed German soldiers, we examined cross-sectional associations of trauma-related social alienation, revenge, guilt and shame with depressive disorder, alcohol use disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder and dimensional measures of depression and anxiety. Latent class analysis was conducted to identify possible patterns of social-affective responses to trauma exposure, and their relation to psychopathology.

All social-affective responses to trauma exposure predicted current posttraumatic stress disorder, depressive disorder, alcohol use disorder and higher depressive and anxiety symptoms. Three latent classes fitted the data best, reflecting groups with (1) low, (2) moderate and (3) high risk for social-affective responses to trauma exposure. The low-risk group demonstrated the lowest expressions on all psychopathology measures.

Trauma-related social alienation, shame, guilt, and revenge are characteristic of individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder, depressive disorder, alcohol use disorder, and with higher anxiety and depressive symptoms. There was little evidence for distinctive patterns of social-affective responses to trauma exposure despite variation in the overall proneness to show social-affective responses. Social-affective responses to trauma exposure could represent promising treatment targets for both cognitive and emotion-focused interventions.