Shame Mediates the Relationship Between Negative Trauma Attributions and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Symptoms in a Trauma Exposed Sample.

Content Provider	Europe PMC
Author	Seah, Rebecca Berle, David
Editor	Weise, Cornelia
Copyright Year	2022
Description	Background Theoretical models of self-conscious emotions indicate that shame is elicited through internal, stable, and global causal attributions of the precipitating event. The current study aimed to investigate whether these negative attributions are related to trauma-related shame and PTSD symptom severity. Method A total of 658 participants aged 18 to 89 (M = 33.42; SD = 12.17) with a history of trauma exposure completed a range of self-report measures assessing trauma exposure, negative trauma-related attributions, shame, and PTSD symptoms. Results Higher levels of internal, stable, and global trauma-related attributions were significantly associated with shame and PTSD. Shame mediated the association between trauma-related attributions and PTSD symptom severity, even after controlling for the effects of number of trauma exposures, worst index trauma and depression. Conclusions The present results suggest that negative attributions are a critical cognitive component related to shame and in turn, PTSD symptom severity. Future research should aim to replicate these findings in a clinical sample and extend these findings using prospective designs. Highlights Cognitive antecedents of shame were investigated in a large trauma-exposed sample.Internal, stable, and global trauma attributions were associated with shame severity.Trauma-related shame mediated the association between trauma-related attributions and PTSD symptoms.Specific attributions may be an important predictor of trauma-related shame.
Related Links	https://europepmc.org/backend/ptpmcrender.fcgi?accid=PMC9667339&blobtype=pdf
Volume Number	4
DOI	10.32872/cpe.7801
PubMed Central reference number	PMC9667339
Issue Number	3
PubMed reference number	36398006
Journal	Clinical Psychology in Europe [Clin Psychol Eur]
e-ISSN	26253410
Language	English
Publisher	PsychOpen
Publisher Date	2022-09-30
Access Restriction	Open
Rights License	This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Subject Keyword	shame Posttraumatic Stress Disorder PTSD negative attributions trauma
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Psychiatry and Mental Health Clinical Psychology