Interpersonal vs. Non-Interpersonal Cumulative Traumas and Psychiatric Symptoms in Treatment-Seeking Incarcerated Women.

Incarcerated women are at elevated risk of lifetime trauma exposure. Prevalence rates of trauma exposure and how these events relate to specific domains of psychiatric symptomology among this group are lacking. This study hypothesized a greater range of diverse cumulative trauma experiences (CTEs) would be positively associated with psychiatric symptoms in general (depression, PTSD, distress tolerance), but that interpersonal CTEs in particular would be uniquely associated with greater symptoms of guilt and shame. A total of 112 women (87% White, Mage = 34 years) seeking treatment for a history of sexual violence victimization participated in the study. Women incarcerated for nonviolent offenses at two minimum-security prisons completed self-report measures of exposure to diverse traumatic events and internalizing symptoms. On average, participants reported a history of experiencing 5.46 traumatic event types. Total CTEs was significantly associated with all psychiatric variables in the expected direction. While both interpersonal and non-interpersonal CTEs were positively associated with levels of PTSD, depression, and distress intolerance, only interpersonal CTEs were significantly associated with guilt and shame. Traumatic experiences that are interpersonal in nature may confer specific risk for psychiatric symptoms in victims.

Beliefs About Emotion Shift Dynamically Alongside Momentary Affect.

This study examined if beliefs about emotion change across emotional contexts in daily life, and it investigated whether people with prominent features of borderline personality pathology experience greater shifts in emotion beliefs during emotional states. Undergraduate participants with (n = 49) and without borderline features (n = 50) completed a 1-week ecological momentary assessment study where they provided ratings of affect, nine different beliefs about emotion, and indicators of momentary self-efficacy. Results support the notion of beliefs as relatively schematic. However, most of the beliefs about emotion shifted with either positive or negative affect, and they predicted momentary self-efficacy for tolerating distress and exerting willpower. Those with borderline features experienced greater instability of beliefs, and borderline features moderated the relationships between affect and many beliefs. Results confirm that there are implications for emotion beliefs for people who struggle with emotion regulation and impulsivity (i.e., people with features of borderline personality).

Disentangling beliefs about emotions from emotion schemas.

OBJECTIVE: The current study sought to empirically evaluate a new clinical tool, the Individual Beliefs about Emotion (IBAE) which assesses nine beliefs about emotion. The goal was to examine the overlap of the IBAE with the Leahy Emotional Schema Scale (LESS), indices of psychopathology, and emotion dysregulation. METHOD: Participants (n = 513) completed the IBAE, the LESS, and measures of affective distress, borderline personality features, and emotion dysregulation. RESULTS: Results indicated that both emotion beliefs (IBAE) and schemas (LESS) were influenced by age and gender. Both measures significantly predicted variance in affective distress, borderline symptoms, and emotion dysregulation, although the LESS was a stronger predictor. CONCLUSION: We conclude that the LESS total score is a particularly useful measure of maladaptive schematic attitudes toward emotion, with additional evidence that the IBAE is a clinical tool that can be useful in psychotherapy to quickly assess a variety of emotion beliefs.

Weekly fluctuations in nonjudging predict borderline personality disorder feature expression in women.

OBJECTIVES: Borderline personality disorder (BPD) features have been linked to deficits in mindfulness, or nonjudgmental attention to present-moment stimuli. However, no previous work has examined the role of fluctuations in mindfulness over time in predicting BPD features. The present study examines the impact of both between-person differences and within-person changes in mindfulness. DESIGN: 40 women recruited to achieve a flat distribution of BPD features completed 4 weekly assessments of mindfulness (Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire; FFMQ) and BPD features. Multilevel models predicted each outcome from both 1) a person's average levels of each facet and 2) weekly deviations from a person's average for each facet. RESULTS: Average acting with awareness, nonjudging, and nonreactivity predicted lower BPD features at the between-person level, and weekly deviations above one's average (i.e., higher-than-usual) nonjudging predicted lower BPD feature expression at the within-person level. CONCLUSIONS: Within-person fluctuations in the nonjudging facet of mindfulness may be relevant to the daily expression of BPD features over and above dispositional mindfulness.