Risk and Resilience Variables as Predictors of Posttraumatic Stress and Growth: A Longitudinal Media-Based Study
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Abstract
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) requires a causal traumatic event that produces severely maladaptive reactions (APA, 2000). Not all people exposed to a traumatic event develop PTSD; as such, identifying predispositional variables (i.e., risk and resiliency factors) associated with PTSD symptoms is important and clinically advantageous. Most experimental investigations of PTSD symptoms have been necessarily retrospective, making causal determinations of predispositional variables difficult, if not impossible. Media imagery of fictional events (e.g., movies) can produce acute states of anxiety and symptoms similar to PTSD. Recent research (Carleton, Sikorski, & Asmundson, 2010) indicates such media may be useful for experimental studies exploring predispositional risk factors for PTSD (e.g., anxiety sensitivity, prior PTSD symptoms); however, the media-exposure model did not explore potential resiliency factors (e.g., hope, social support) that may be critical for explaining the development and maintenance of PTSD or posttraumatic growth (i.e., significant positive growth following a trauma). The present research replicated and extended the longitudinal use of analogue trauma. Undergraduate participants (n=71; 79% women) completed several measures assessing posited risk and resiliency variables. Following initial assessment, participants viewed a horror movie and were then measured immediately after the movie, at a week 1 follow-up, and at a week 4 follow up. The horror movie facilitated a substantial state anxiety response, and risk and resilience variables significantly predicted symptoms of posttraumatic distress and growth. The results support the trauma analogue paradigm and identify risk and resilience variables of potential importance for posttraumatic responses. Comprehensive results, implications, and directions for future research are discussed.