The role of disclosure attitudes in the relationship between posttraumatic stress disorder symptom severity and perceived social support among emergency service workers. (December 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Köhler, Martina; Schäfer, Hanja; Goebel, Simone; Pedersen, Anya
• Is Part Of: Psychiatry research. Volume 270(2018)
• Page Start: 602
• Page End: 610
• Publication Date: 2018-12
• Subjects: Disclosure -- Social Support -- Trauma -- Interpersonal factors -- Emergency personnel; Psychiatry -- Periodicals; Psychiatry -- periodicals; Psychiatrie -- Périodiques; 616.89
• DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2018.10.049
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0165-1781

Abstract

Highlights: Individuals with greater PTSD symptom severity experience less social support. Disclosure attitudes account for the link between PTSD severity and social support. Facilitating post-trauma disclosure for persons who feel restricted to talk is important. Disclosure may prevent trauma victims from receiving lower social support. Abstract: The social-interpersonal framework model of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD; Maercker and Horn, 2012) highlights the relevance of interpersonal factors in the development and maintenance of PTSD symptoms. Therefore, the present study examined the role of self-perceived disclosure abilities to elucidate the well-known link between PTSD symptom severity and social support. In a cross-sectional design, 131 emergency service workers completed the Impact of Event Scale (IES-R), the Disclosure of Trauma Questionnaire (DTQ) and the Social Acknowledgement Questionnaire (SAQ) as well as answering trauma-specific questions to provide in-depth information regarding their experiences in potentially traumatic incidents and subsequent social interactions. We reveal the predescribed association between PTSD symptom severity and social support. However, bootstrap mediation analyses reveal the self-referential perceptions of disclosure abilities, particularly a reluctance to talk, to fully account for the link between PTSD symptom severity and social acknowledgement. Our findings strongly support the relevance of the self-perceived disclosure abilities in the processing of traumatic events. A reluctance to speak is associated with more severe PTSD symptoms and with lower levels of social support; therefore, facilitating and encouraging disclosure in individuals who feel unable to disclose traumatic contents may be clinically relevant in preventing feelings of social disapproval and isolation.