No abstract

This study investigated the adverse effects of exposure to inmate or peer aggression, type D‐personality and their interactions on post‐traumatic stress reactions among a sample of prison workers. The basic tenet of type D‐personality is that not so much the experience of negative emotions per se is responsible for negative health consequences, but rather the way individuals cope with such emotions. Many studies have revealed diverse adverse health outcomes of type D‐personality, particularly among cardiac patients. However, the moderating effect of social inhibition has never been statistically examined in other populations. Participants (111 men, 40 women) were recruited in 10 Dutch correctional institutions. The results showed that victims of aggression are more prone to develop Post‐traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms than non‐victims, although this particularly applied to victims of peer aggression. Furthermore, an interaction effect was observed between inmate aggression and type D‐personality. Finally, both peer aggression and type D‐personality contributed to the development of PTSD. The results were discussed together with recommendations for future research. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This study explored whether peritraumatic distress and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms are curvilinearly related to posttraumatic growth in victims of violence several years after victimization (Time 1; n = 678) and 6 months later (Time 2, n = 205). At both time points, curve estimation revealed linear and quadratic associations between peritraumatic distress and posttraumatic growth and quadratic associations between PTSD symptoms and posttraumatic growth. In multivariate regressions controlling for background variables, the linear peritraumatic distress and quadratic PTSD symptom terms remained significant predictors of posttraumatic growth Time 1 scores. For Time 2, the linear peritraumatic distress term remained significant, though only prior to controlling for posttraumatic growth Time 1 scores. The results suggest that peritraumatic distress enables growth after substantial time has elapsed since victimization.

The current study explored the differential association between affective personality type, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity, and post-traumatic growth (PTG) in victims of violence (N = 113). Relying on previous research, median cut off-scores on the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule Short Form were used to classify participants as high affective [i.e. high positive affectivity (PA) and high negative affectivity (NA)], selfactualizing (i.e. high PA and low NA), self-destructive (i.e. low PA and high NA) and low affective (i.e. low PA and low NA). Results indicated that the self-destructive and high affective personality styles were strongly associated with increased PTSD symptoms severity. High affective personality type was found to be the only signifi cant predictor of PTG. Results, study limitations and directions for future research were discussed.

The current study used a prospective design to investigate the association between early symptoms, satisfaction with the initial police response, and development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology in victims of domestic burglary (n = 95). Early symptoms and satisfaction with the initial police response were assessed through telephone interviews conducted within the first month after the burglary and PTSD symptoms 4 to 6 weeks after baseline. Separate regression models were tested for satisfaction with performance and satisfaction with procedure. Results suggested that early symptoms were a risk factor for PTSD symptomatology (β = .50, p < .001 and β = .48, p < .001) above and beyond levels of peritraumatic distress (β = .21, p < .05 and β = .22, p < .05) and irrespective of level of satisfaction (β = -.02, ns and β = -.10, ns). Victims with high levels of early symptoms, however, were clearly at an increased risk of PTSD symptomatology if they scored low on satisfaction at baseline. Results were discussed in light of the framework of therapeutic jurisprudence.