Emotion Dysregulation and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: a Test of the Incremental Role of Difficulties Regulating Positive Emotions

• NCJ Number: 254099
• Author(s): Nicole H. Weiss; Rebecca J. Nelson; Ateka A. Contractor; Tami P. Sullivan
• Date Published: 2019
• Length: 14 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2012-IJ-CX-0045
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical); Report (Study/Research); Report (Grant Sponsored); Program/Project Description
• Award: Criminal Protection Orders As A Critical Strategy To Reduce Domestic Violence: The Impact Of Orders On Victims' Well-Being, Offenders' Behavior, And Children's Contact With Offending Fathers

Annotation

Since relatively few studies have examined the contribution to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) of emotion dysregulation that stems from positive emotions, the current study examined (1) the bivariate association of difficulties in regulating positive emotions to PTSD symptom severity, and (2) the incremental role of difficulties in regulating positive emotions in PTSD symptom severity beyond difficulties regulating negative emotions.

Abstract

Study participants were 210 women victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) involved in the criminal justice system because of their partners' arrest (M age 36.14, 48.6 percent African American). The participants completed empirically supported self-report measures that assessed difficulties in regulating positive and negative emotions in relation to PTSD symptom severity. The study found that difficulties in regulating positive and negative emotions (overall and across each of the specific dimensions) were significantly positively associated with PTSD symptom severity; moreover, difficulties in regulating positive emotions had an incremental relation to PTSD symptom severity beyond the variance accounted for by difficulties in regulating negative emotions.These findings suggest the benefit of targeting difficulties in regulating positive emotions in interventions for PTSD among women victims of IPV. (publisher abstract modified)