Maladaptive trauma appraisals mediate the relation between attachment anxiety and PTSD symptom severity.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: In a large sample of community-dwelling older adults with histories of
exposure to a broad range of traumatic events, we examined the extent to which appraisals
of traumatic events mediate the relations between insecure attachment styles and posttraumatic
stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity. METHOD: Participants completed an assessment
of adult attachment, in addition to measures of PTSD symptom severity, event centrality,
event severity, and ratings of the A1 PTSD diagnostic criterion for the potentially
traumatic life event that bothered them most at the time of the study. RESULTS: Consistent
with theoretical proposals and empirical studies indicating that individual differences
in adult attachment systematically influence how individuals evaluate distressing
events, individuals with higher attachment anxiety perceived their traumatic life
events to be more central to their identity and more severe. Greater event centrality
and event severity were each in turn related to higher PTSD symptom severity. In contrast,
the relation between attachment avoidance and PTSD symptoms was not mediated by appraisals
of event centrality or event severity. Furthermore, neither attachment anxiety nor
attachment avoidance was related to participants' ratings of the A1 PTSD diagnostic
criterion. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that attachment anxiety contributes to
greater PTSD symptom severity through heightened perceptions of traumatic events as
central to identity and severe. (PsycINFO Database Record
Type
Journal articlePermalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/12029Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1037/tra0000112Publication Info
Ogle, CM; Rubin, DC; & Siegler, IC (2016). Maladaptive trauma appraisals mediate the relation between attachment anxiety and
PTSD symptom severity. Psychol Trauma, 8(3). pp. 301-309. 10.1037/tra0000112. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/12029.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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David C. Rubin
Juanita M. Kreps Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience
For .pdfs of all publications click here My main research interest has been in long-term
memory, especially for complex (or "real-world") stimuli. This work includes the study
of autobiographical memory and oral traditions, as w
Ilene C. Siegler
Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
My research efforts are in the area of developmental health psychology and organized
around understanding the role of personality in health and disease in middle and later
life. My primary research activity is as Principal Investigator of the UNC Alumni
Heart Study (UNCAHS) a prospective epidemiologic study of 5000 middle aged men and
women and 1200 of their spouses that evaluates the role of personality on coronary
heart disease and coronary heart disease risk, cancer, and normal a
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