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Emotion Dysregulation and Social Support in PTSD and Depression: A Study of Trauma‐Exposed Veterans
Author(s) -
Cox Daniel W.,
Bakker A. Myfanwy,
Naifeh James A.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of traumatic stress
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.259
H-Index - 134
eISSN - 1573-6598
pISSN - 0894-9867
DOI - 10.1002/jts.22226
Subject(s) - depression (economics) , psychology , social support , clinical psychology , psychiatry , psychotherapist , economics , macroeconomics
Emotion dysregulation has been associated with impaired interpersonal functioning and increased risk of posttraumatic psychopathology. Given that social support is a robust predictor of psychiatric morbidity following trauma exposure, we examined whether emotion dysregulation was associated with posttraumatic psychopathology through its negative effect on social support. Using self‐report data from 90 military veterans (89.9% men) enrolled in an outpatient psychotherapy program for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), we found that social support partially mediated the effect of emotion dysregulation on PTSD ( P M = .10) and depression symptoms ( P M = .14). When source of support was considered, friend ( P M = .08) and significant other support ( P M = .06) were greater mediators of the effect of emotion dysregulation on depression symptoms than family support ( P M = .01). There were no differential mediating effects for support providers on PTSD symptoms. Our findings indicate that social support is a statistically significant yet clinically limited mechanism through which emotion dysregulation is linked with psychiatric symptoms. Implications for these limitations and alternative potentially relevant interpersonal mechanisms are discussed.