Behavioral inhibition and posttrauma symptomatology: Moderating effects of safety behaviors and biological sex.

OBJECTIVES: Behavioral inhibition is a trait-level factor associated with posttraumatic stress. Safety behaviors may impact this link by interfering with anxiety habituation. The current study examined the unique and interactive effects of behavioral inhibition, safety behaviors, and participant sex on posttrauma symptom clusters. METHOD: Participants (N = 131; 75.6% female; M = 19.9 years) completed a trauma history interview and questionnaires assessing behavioral inhibition, safety behavior, and posttrauma symptom severity. RESULTS: Safety behaviors were associated with intrusion (partial correlations [pr] = 0.319), avoidance (pr = 0.274), cognition-mood (pr = 0.274), and arousal-reactivity (pr = 0.538) symptoms (all p ≤ 0.001). An interaction of sex and safety behaviors was noted for avoidance (p = 0.047, pr = -0.159) with a significant relation observed only among women ( p < 0.001, pr = 0.442). Safety behaviors also moderated the link between behavioral inhibition and arousal-reactivity (p = 0.002, pr = 0.272) with inhibition predicting symptoms at high levels of safety behavior (p = 0.024, pr = 0.171). CONCLUSION: Trauma-related safety behaviors are associated with greater posttrauma symptoms and evidence differential effects across individual symptom domains.

Stability of reported trauma over extended intervals: Initial evaluation of an exposure screening protocol.

The reliability and validity of reported exposure to significant trauma is critical to research evaluating outcomes following serious and distressing life events. The current study examined the reliability of reported exposure to disaster, fire, transportation accidents, physical assault, and sexual assault across 5- (N = 251), 12- (N = 223), and 24-month (N = 109) intervals in undergraduates completing a screening measure of probable trauma (N = 3,045). Concordance with later responses to an alternate checklist and events assessed via clinical interview was examined in a subset of participants (N = 274). Five-month reliabilities ranged from good to fair (κ = .40-.71) and were similar to 1-2 week retest estimates in the extant literature. Reliabilities for fire, accidents, and sexual assault remained stable over 12- and 24-month intervals. Coefficients for disaster and physical assault decreased over time. Agreement with the alternate checklist was fair to excellent in those completing the follow-up assessment (κ = .51-.87). Concordance with interview-based trauma was acceptable for accidents (κ = .52) and sexual violence (κ = .82) but poor for disaster, fire, and physical assault (κ = .34-.38). Specificity, negative predictive power, and negative likelihood ratios suggest checklists may hold utility in ruling out previous trauma. Sensitivities indicate that screening instruments may broadly capture individuals experiencing traumatic life events although positive predictive power was limited except in the prediction of traffic accidents and sexual assault. Variability across domains suggests that the properties of checklist measures could be better conceptualized at the level of individual exposure events. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Exploring the relation between posttraumatic stress disorder and interpersonal outcomes: The role of social acknowledgment and trauma type.

OBJECTIVES: Research demonstrates consistent relations between posttrauma symptoms and interpersonal dysfunction. The current study examined the extent to which perceptions of community rejection account for the relation between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and interpersonal outcomes in students exposed to assaultive and nonassaultive trauma. METHOD: Participants (N = 137; 66.4% female; M = 20 years) completed a trauma history interview, questionnaires assessing symptom severity, social disapproval, and interpersonal outcomes. RESULTS: Assault survivors (n = 83) reported greater symptoms (d = 0.57), disapproval (d = 0.80), and social impairment (d = 0.51) relative to the nonassault group (n = 54). However, regression analyses indicated stronger associations between PTSD and community disapproval in survivors of nonassaultive (ß = 0.69; p < 0.001) versus assaultive (ß = 0.34; p < 0.001) events. Indirect effects of PTSD on perceived support and interpersonal functioning through social disapproval were also larger for nonassaultive versus assaultive groups (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Despite greater dysfunction among assault survivors, perceptions of disapproval may be a more salient factor for interpersonal dynamics following nonassaultive trauma.

Interventions for alcohol-related risky sexual behaviors among college students: A systematic review.

Alcohol-related risky sexual behaviors are common among college students. Though various interventions targeting these behaviors have been examined, the literature does not currently include a review of these strategies. A comprehensive literature search was conducted, yielding 7 randomized controlled trials. Relevant outcome variables included unprotected sex, alcohol in conjunction with sex, and number of sexual partners. Findings suggested that interventions utilizing reminder cues or motivational interviewing-based techniques were largely found to be effective in increasing condom use behaviors among intoxicated individuals, while support for personalized normative feedback (PNF) for the same outcome was mixed. However, PNF interventions were generally effective in reducing alcohol use in conjunction with sex. Finally, though few studies examined number of sexual partners, there are mixed findings for interventions (i.e., motivational interviewing, PNF) targeting this outcome. Overall, there is promising, albeit mixed, evidence of the effectiveness of interventions targeting various alcohol-related risky sexual behaviors among college students. Strengths, limitations, and implications of the findings of this systematic review for future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record