Once bitten, twice shy: Interpersonal Trauma on Cognition and Growth

Research has shown that various types of trauma produce distinct outcomes in the lives of survivors (Brooks et al., 2019). The purpose of this study was to understand how experiencing interpersonal and non-interpersonal trauma affects posttraumatic cognition and posttraumatic growth of survivors, and whether posttraumatic cognition of survivors mediates the experience of trauma on posttraumatic growth. This study used an archival dataset of 626 participants who completed an anonymous online study. Data was collected online via Amazon Mechanical Turk. Bivariate correlations, followed by z-tests of differences between the strength of correlations, were conducted to determine whether interpersonal trauma had a stronger relationship with negative cognitions than non-interpersonal trauma. Two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to examine differences in posttraumatic cognition (negative cognitions of the self, the world, and self-blame) and growth based on the presence or absence of interpersonal and non- interpersonal trauma and gender. Moderated mediation analyses using Hayes (2021) Process macro was then used to assess whether posttraumatic cognition mediates this relationship between posttraumatic growth and trauma experience. Trauma type (interpersonal vs. non-interpersonal) was examined as a potential moderator of this mediation model. The results of this study indicate a stronger relationship between interpersonal trauma and negative self-blame cognitions than with non-interpersonal trauma. Posttraumatic cognition partially mediated the relationship between trauma experience and posttraumatic growth. However, trauma type does not moderate this mediation model. This study provides a better understanding of the relationship between trauma experience, trauma type, posttraumatic cognition, and posttraumatic growth.