RT Article
T1 Experiential Avoidance and Post-traumatic Stress Symptoms Among Child Abuse Counselors and Service Workers: A Brief Report
JF Journal of interpersonal violence
VO 37
IS 11/12
A1 Miller, Michelle L.
A2 Gerhart, James I.
A2 Maffett, Anissa J.
A2 Lorbeck, Angela
A2 England, Ashley Eaton
A2 O’Mahony, Sean
LA English
YR 2022
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1884271391
AB Professionals who counsel and serve survivors of childhood abuse may be at risk of experiencing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which can be exacerbated by cognitive and emotional processes. It is hypothesized that (1) a significant proportion of professionals who primarily serve child abuse survivors experience elevated levels of PTSD symptoms and (2) elevated PTSD symptoms are associated with psychological inflexibility processes, specifically increased experiential avoidance, cognitive fusion, and emotion regulation difficulties. Child abuse counselors and service workers (N = 31) in a major metropolitan area were recruited for a small pilot study. Participants completed self-report measures of PTSD symptoms and levels of psychological flexibility processes. A significant proportion of counselors endorsed clinically significant PTSD symptoms (n = 13, 41.9%). PTSD symptoms were significantly associated with experiential avoidance (r = .54, p < .01) and emotion regulation difficulties (r = .51, p < .01). These associations remained significant after controlling for the personality trait of emotional stability/neuroticism. These findings suggest that PTSD symptoms may be common among child abuse counselors and service workers, and these symptoms tend to be of greater intensity when responded to in avoidant and inflexible ways.
K1 cognitive fusion
K1 Emotion regulation
K1 experiential avoidance
K1 Post-traumatic stress disorder
K1 treatment of child abuse
K1 vicarious trauma
DO 10.1177/0886260520976225