Mediational effects of traumatic emotions in the relationship between PTSD and narrative coherence in child sexual abuse.

Journal title MALTRATTAMENTO E ABUSO ALL’INFANZIA
Author/s Sarah Miragoli, Luca Milani
Publishing Year 2019 Issue 2019/2
Language Italian Pages 17 P. 61-77 File size 211 KB
DOI 10.3280/MAL2019-002005
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The present study aimed to assess the mediational effects of the traumatic emotions (fear/anxiety, anger, sense of isolation, helplessness, humiliation, betrayal, disgust, shame and guilt) in the relationship between PTSD and narrative coherence within a group of 84 allegations of children (M = 9 years; SD = 3.2; range: 4-17), who were victims of sexual abuse. Narrative coherence was analysed in terms of level of orientation, sequence of the events and level of evaluation (Miragoli et al., 2017; O’Kearney et al., 2007; Peterson & McCabe, 1983). Linguistic Inquiry Word Count (LIWC; Pennebaker, Francis, & Booth, 2001) was employed to count emotional linguistic markers. Results confirmed that PTSD played an important role in establishing narrative coherence and illustrated that some specific traumatic emotions (shame and disgust) had a mediational effects (partial or total) in the rela-tionship between PTSD and narrative coherence.

Keywords: Narrative coherence, child sexual abuse, PTSD, traumatic emotions, child testi-mony.

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