Symposia
Trauma and Stressor Related Disorders and Disasters
Marielle Gomez, B.S.
Joiner Lab Manager
Florida State University
Tallahassee, Florida
Michelle Jeon, M.A.
Graduate Student
Florida state university
Tallahassee, Florida
Thomas Joiner, Ph.D.
Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor of Psychology
Florida state University
Tallahassee, Florida
Background: Theory development and empirical research on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and its clinical implications has relied heavily on predominantly White/Caucasian samples, which may limit generalizability. Previous findings have demonstrated presentation of PTSD symptoms may differ in women of color, such as Latinas, due to cultural influences. Research has indicated that such influences may impact the structure of PTSD to differ significantly in this population, warranting research attention. To meet this need, we estimated the network structure of PTSD symptoms in a community sample of Latinas (n = 720) who have experienced sexual violence to explore the structure of PTSD symptoms.
Methods: PTSD symptoms were quantified using the Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist: Civilian Scale (PCL-C), which displayed excellent internal consistency (a = .93). The network was estimated using the R package qgraph. Node predictability, which quantifies the degree to which a node’s variance is accounted for by all other nodes included in the network, was calculated. Stability of the network was assessed utilizing nonparametric bootstrapping for 1,000 samples.
Results: The overall network structure largely resembled that of meta-analytic results (Isovoranu et al., 2021), indicating lack of network structural invariance. In our network, external avoidance had the highest predictability value (0.597) and hypervigilance had the lowest (0.308). However, Isovoranu et al. (2021) identified intrusive thoughts and feelings of detachment as nodes with the highest predictability and amnesia with the lowest. The most prominent edge in the network was the relationship between internal avoidance and external avoidance (0.44), and the least prominent was the relationship between physical reactivity and irritability anger (0.07).
Discussion: Results support a lack of network structure invariance between previously established network structure of PTSD and that of a sample of Latinas who experienced sexual violence. Notable differences in predictability values in our data compared to the meta-analytic results indicate that there may be differences within core symptoms that maintain the disorder. Future research should test whether these differences, or lack of, persist in other data, and explore their implications in research and treatment.