| Abstract
Incarcerated women experience significantly higher rates of trauma exposure and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) than non-incarcerated women. Existing literature demonstrates that mental health mediates the relationship between trauma exposure and offending, which highlights the need to better understand mental health problems to inform treatment interventions. Both theory and empirical findings suggest that emotion regulation may be a key factor linking trauma to expression of PTSD. The present study expanded upon current literature by comprehensively evaluating the relationships among trauma exposure, emotion regulation abilities, and PTSD in incarcerated women (n = 152). PTSD was measured utilizing DSM-5 symptom criteria. Consistent with prior research on community samples, incarcerated women diagnosed with current PTSD had significantly worse emotion regulation abilities compared to women who did not meet criteria for PTSD. As hypothesized, age of trauma onset was a significant predictor of emotion regulation and experiential avoidance. Furthermore, age of trauma onset and chronicity of trauma were significant predictors of PTSD symptom severity. Lastly, utilizing structural equation modeling (SEM), trauma chronicity, including interpersonal and non-interpersonal traumas, and age of onset for interpersonal trauma exerted direct effects on PTSD symptom severity as well as significant indirect effects through emotion regulation difficulties. Implications for the treatment of incarcerated women with posttraumatic stress disorder are discussed.
Keywords: trauma exposure, interpersonal violence, emotion regulation, PTSD, incarcerated women. |