Posttraumatic stress symptoms and its association with rumination, thought suppression and experiential avoidance: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a severe mental disorder causing high individual and societal costs. The use of maladaptive emotion regulation (ER) strategies has been identified as a potential contributing factor. This meta-analysis aimed to quantify the associations between PTSD symptoms and rumination, thought suppression and experiential avoidance. The systematic literature search resulted in 4486 studies, 44 of which were included in the analysis. From those eligible studies 135 effect sizes were obtained. For symptoms of posttraumatic stress, large effects were found for associations with rumination (r = .53) and experiential avoidance (r = .47), whereas a medium effect size was found for thought suppression (r = .27). With respect to different PTSD symptom clusters, associations ranged between r = .35 and r = .38 for associations with intrusive re-experiencing, between r = .39 and r = .40 for associations with avoidance, between r = .48 and r = .56 for associations with alterations in cognitions and mood and between r = .42 and r = .43 for associations with alterations in arousal and activity. Few available studies provide some evidence that associations might be somewhat reduced but still substantial in longitudinal compared to cross-sectional studies. These findings provide valuable targets for future investigations with the long-term goal of improving targeted interventions for the prevention and treatment of PTSD symptoms.