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Narrating psychological distress: Associations between cross-clausal integration and mental health difficulties

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2011

JÖRG ZINKEN ,
CAROLINE BLAKEMORE ,
KATARZYNA ZINKEN ,
LISA BUTLER  and
T. CHAS SKINNER
JÖRG ZINKEN*
Affiliation:
University of Portsmouth
CAROLINE BLAKEMORE
Affiliation:
University of Southampton
KATARZYNA ZINKEN
Affiliation:
Warsaw School of Social Sciences and Humanities
LISA BUTLER
Affiliation:
Portsmouth City Primary Care Trust
T. CHAS SKINNER
Affiliation:
Combined Universities Centre for Rural Health
*
ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE Jörg Zinken, Department of Psychology, University of Portsmouth, King Henry Building, King Henry I Street, Portsmouth PO1 2DY, UK. E-mail: joerg.zinken@port.ac.uk
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Abstract

Psychological research has emphasized the importance of narrative for a person's sense of self. Building a coherent narrative of past events is one objective of psychotherapy. However, in guided self-help therapy the patient has to develop this narrative autonomously. Identifying patients’ narrative skills in relation to psychological distress could provide useful information about their suitability for self-help. The aim of this study was to explore whether the syntactic integration of clauses into narrative in texts written by prospective psychotherapy patients was related to mild to moderate psychological distress. Cross-clausal syntax of texts by 97 people who had contacted a primary care mental health service was analyzed. Severity of symptoms associated with mental health difficulties was assessed by a standardized scale (Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation outcome measure). Cross-clausal syntactic integration was negatively correlated with the severity of symptoms. A multiple regression analysis confirmed that the use of simple sentences, finite complement clauses, and coordinated clauses was associated with symptoms (R2 = .26). The results suggest that the analysis of cross-clausal syntax can provide information on patients’ narrative skills in relation to distressing events and can therefore provide additional information to support treatment decisions.

Type
Articles
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 32 , Issue 2 , April 2011 , pp. 263 - 274
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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