Does resilience mediate the association between mental health symptoms and linguistic markers of trauma processing? Analyzing the narratives of women survivors of intimate partner violence

Abstract

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a serious issue for women from all cultures and backgrounds. Studies on the negative consequences of violence suggest that women with a history of abuse are more likely to display depressive and PTSD symptoms. However, recent research has focused on the mechanisms underpinning resilience and the processing of traumatic memories, including linguistic markers and how they may reflect the mental health of traumatized individuals. In this study, we analyzed trauma narratives to investigate whether resilience mediates the impact of PTSD and depression symptoms on five trauma-processing mechanisms (cognitive processing, emotional processing, perceived threat to life, self-perspective, and integration of traumatic memories). Forty-three abused women (mean age = 38.74 years; SD = 9.41) wrote about their traumatic experiences and completed instruments assessing their levels of PTSD, depression, and resilience. We used LIWC software to analyze the women's narratives in terms of linguistic markers of psychological processing. Mediation analysis indicated that resilience fully mediated the impact of mental health symptoms on emotional processing, perceived threat to life, and integration of traumatic memories and partially mediated cognitive processing and self-perspective. We discuss the clinical implications of these findings, emphasizing the need to focus on the resources and strengths of women survivors of abuse in designing targeted psychological interventions.

Examining the associations between control (primary and secondary) appraisals and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms in Malaysian and Australian trauma survivors

“…While research in this area is impressive, it has been predominately conducted in Western cultures and is based on Western cultural understandings (Jobson, 2009; . However, PTSD has been observed in most societies and cultures (e.g., Bahari et al, 2017;Kessler et al, 2017;Phoenix Australia, 2022;Castiglioni et al, 2023;Stein et al, 2023). Therefore, it is unclear whether the role of maladaptive appraisals in PTSD is similar across cultures and whether current understandings are applicable to trauma survivors globally.…”