The Impact of Probable PTSD on Trait and State Emotional Responding Among Survivors of Lifetime Sexual Violence

Objective: This study investigated the impact of lifetime sexual violence exposure and probable posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on trait and state emotional responding among a sample of 169 community women. Method: Participants completed self-report measures of experiences of lifetime sexual violence and trait emotion modulation and emotional reactivity. Participants also reported on their negative affect in response to fear and sadness-eliciting film clips, as well as their perceived ability to modulate negative emotions following a distressing laboratory task. Results: Women with lifetime sexual violence and probable PTSD reported greater trait difficulties adaptively responding to negative emotions, greater negative affect reactivity in response to the fear-eliciting film clip, and greater perceived difficulties modulating negative emotions following a distressing task than two comparison groups: women with lifetime sexual violence but no probable PTSD and non-trauma-exposed controls. No group differences emerged for reactivity to the sadness-eliciting film clip. Conclusions: Findings suggest that both emotion modulation difficulties and heightened negative emotional reactivity are related to PTSD status rather than sexual violence exposure.