title: Individual differences in trauma disclosure.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Findings on disclosure and adjustment following traumatic events have been mixed. Better understanding of individual differences in disclosure may help us better understand reactions following trauma exposure. In particular, studying disclosure patterns for those with and without psychopathology and for different types of emotional experiences may help clarify the relationship between disclosure, event emotionality, trauma exposure, and PTSD.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this study, 143 men and women with (n=67) and without (n=43) chronic PTSD and without trauma exposure (n=33) provided information on disclosure for a traumatic/severe life event, a negative event, and a positive event.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Individuals with PTSD reported greater difficulty disclosing their traumatic event compared to those with trauma exposure no PTSD and those with no-trauma exposure. However, individuals with PTSD reported disclosing the traumatic event a similar number of times and with similar levels of detail to those with trauma exposure but no PTSD. Both sexual and childhood trauma were associated with greater disclosure difficulty.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although control event types (positive, negative) were selected to control for the passage of time and for general disclosure style, they do not control for salience of the event and results may be limited by control events that were not highly salient.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The present findings point to a dynamic conceptualization of disclosure, suggesting that the differential difficulty of disclosing traumatic events seen in individuals with PTSD is not simply a function of the amount of disclosure or the amount of details provided.
authors.affiliation: University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, United States. mab29@u.washington.edu
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bedard-Gilligan
authors.forename: Jeff
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jaeger
authors.forename: Aileen
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Echiverri-Cohen
authors.forename: Lori A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Zoellner
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D057566:Self Report; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000523:psychology*; D015599:Trauma Severity Indices; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult
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