Cognitive and emotional processing in narratives of women abused by intimate partners.
This study examined relationships between cognitive and emotional processing with changes in pain and depression among intimate partner violence survivors. Twenty-five women who wrote about their most traumatic experiences completed measures of pain and depressive symptoms before the first writing session and again 4 months following the last writing session. Reduced pain was significantly associated with less use of positive and negative emotion words. Relationships between cognitive and emotional aspects of writing with changes in depressive symptoms fell short of statistical significance. The results suggest that emotional processing in narrative writing predicts changes in pain in intimate partner violence survivors.
Holmes
Danielle
D
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
Alpers
Georg W
GW
Ismailji
Tasneem
T
Classen
Catherine
C
Wales
Talor
T
Cheasty
Valerie
V
Miller
Andrew
A
Koopman
Cheryl
C
D000328:Adult; D000739:Anecdotes as Topic; D018585:Battered Women / Q000523:psychology*; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013179:Spouse Abuse / Q000523:psychology*; D017741:Survivors / Q000523:psychology*; D016387:Women's Health