Citation

Bynion TM, Higuera D, Gournay LR, Bridges A, Feldner M, Leen-Feldner E. Anxiety Stress Coping 2022; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/10615806.2022.2126974

PMID

36166328

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Idiographic script-driven imagery is core to both research and treatment related to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), including among individuals with a history of sexual assault. However, there may be benefit in having alternatives to such idiographic techniques. The current study therefore examined multimodal responding to a standardized audio-recorded narrative of a sexual assault. DESIGN AND METHOD: In this experiment, 105 women (Mage = 19.09, SD = 2.24) were recruited from the community and randomly assigned to listen to a depiction of sexual assault (trauma condition) or a similar experience without sexual assault (control condition).

RESULTS: As hypothesized, relative to the control group, participants in the trauma condition reported greater (a) increases in anxiety, anger, and disgust from pre- to post- manipulation, and (b) distress across the duration of the recording. In contrast to hypotheses, heart-rate did not differ across groups.

CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest listening to a standardized sexual assault narrative, compared to a non-traumatic narrative, effectively increases negative affect. This indicates standardized sexual assault narratives have potential as a traumatic event cue presentation method both for trauma-focused treatment and studying reactions to sexual assault cues.

Language: en

Keywords

experiment; emotion; heart rate; Trauma cue presentation