The closed response style and posttraumatic stress: Examining the interaction between experiential avoidance and cognitive fusion among women experiencing sexual trauma.

OBJECTIVE: Experiential avoidance and cognitive fusion synergistically form what is known as the closed response style. Prior study findings indicate that the closed response style, examined as an interaction between experiential avoidance and cognitive fusion, relates to posttraumatic stress symptom severity among a heterogeneous sample of trauma survivors. The present study sought to extend those findings by examining the association between the closed response style and posttraumatic stress symptom severity specifically among women who survived a Criterion A sexual trauma. METHOD: The sample was 136 women attending a southern U.S. university who reported Criterion A sexual trauma exposure. Participants completed self-report measures assessing the study variables. RESULTS: The predicted interaction between experiential avoidance and cognitive fusion accounted for unique variance in posttraumatic stress symptom severity (total symptom severity, along with hyperarousal and alterations in cognitions and mood). Simple effects indicated that experiential avoidance and cognitive fusion only shared associations with posttraumatic stress symptom severity when coupled with high levels of the other process (i.e., cognitive fusion or experiential avoidance, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Results provide further support for the potential relevance of the closed response style to posttraumatic stress. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Executive attention moderates the effect of trait anxiety on hyperarousal symptoms.

The majority of individuals exposed to trauma do not go on to develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD); thus, researchers have sought to identify individual difference variables that make one particularly susceptible to posttraumatic stress symptoms. Trait anxiety is one individual difference variable implicated in the pathogenesis of posttraumatic stress symptoms. Following from cognitive theories of anxiety and extant data, the purpose of the present study was to examine executive attention as a moderator of the relation between trait anxiety and posttraumatic stress symptoms, particularly hyperarousal symptoms, among undergraduate women reporting trauma exposure (N = 88). As predicted, executive attention moderated the association between trait anxiety and hyperarousal symptoms, such that there was a significantly weaker relation as executive attention increased. Study results further support the potential buffering effect of executive attention in relation to posttraumatic stress symptoms, as well as the possible importance of targeting executive attention following trauma exposure.

Metacognitive Beliefs Predict Greater Mental Contamination Severity After an Evoking Source.

Mental contamination occurs when individuals experience feelings of internal dirtiness and distress in the absence of physical contact with a contaminant. Women who experience sexual trauma frequently report mental contamination. The self-regulatory executive function (S-REF) model proposes that metacognitive beliefs contribute to the appraisal and regulation of thinking, leading to expectations that metacognitive beliefs would predict greater mental contamination severity following an evoking source. Women who reported directly experiencing sexual trauma (N = 102) completed self-report measures of metacognitive beliefs and covariates during an online study session, and subsequently completed a task that evoked mental contamination during a follow-up in-person study session. Metacognitive beliefs surrounding the uncontrollability and danger of thoughts, cognitive confidence, and the need to control thoughts positively correlated with mental contamination severity following the evoking source. Metacognitive beliefs surrounding the uncontrollability and danger of thoughts predicted greater mental contamination severity following the evoking source in multivariate analyses that statistically controlled for baseline mental contamination severity, trait anxiety, and overlap among the metacognitive beliefs. The present results provide preliminary support for the S-REF model as a potential framework for conceptualizing mental contamination.