Examining the Association Between Emotion Regulation Difficulties and Probable Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Within a Sample of African Americans

Abstract

This study examined the associations between emotion dysregulation and probable posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among 180 African American undergraduates enrolled in a historically black college in the southern United States. Trauma-exposed participants with probable PTSD reported significantly higher levels of overall emotion dysregulation and the specific dimensions of lack of emotional acceptance, difficulties engaging in goal-directed behavior when upset, difficulties controlling impulsive behaviors when distressed, and limited access to effective emotion regulation strategies than participants without Criterion A traumatic exposure and those with Criterion A traumatic exposure but no PTSD (controlling for age and negative affect). Furthermore, results indicated that participants with Criterion A traumatic exposure but no PTSD were significantly less likely to report difficulties controlling impulsive behaviors when distressed and limited access to effective emotion regulation strategies than participants without Criterion A traumatic exposure (controlling for age and negative affect). These findings extend extant research on the role of emotion dysregulation in PTSD, thus providing support for the relevance of emotion dysregulation to PTSD among African American adults in particular.

Keywords:

• posttraumatic stress disorder
• trauma
• emotion regulation
• African American

Notes

^1. No significant between-group differences were found for age (F = 0.24, p = .80), gender (F = 2.56, p = .08), annual household income (F = 0.52, p = .60), or number of PTEs (F = 1.90, p = .15).

^2. Results remained the same (in direction and level of significance) when the covariates were removed from the analysis; Pillai's trace (V) = .38, F = 6.17, and p < .001 (Fs ranged from 29.78 to 18.85 and ps < .001).

^3. Of note, the present sample did not differ on other sociodemographic variables (i.e., age and gender) from participants in Tull et al.'s (2007) study (M age = 24.87; SD age = 9.11; 64% female). While Ehring and Quack's (2010) sample was older (M age = 32.03; SD age = 11.16), it also had predominantly female participants (82.9%).