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The Role of Avoidance Coping in the Disclosure of Trauma

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 February 2012

Justin Kenardy  and
Li-Jen Tan
Justin Kenardy*
Affiliation:
The University of Queensland, Australia and Centre of National Research on Disability and Rehabilitation Medicine, Mayne School of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Australia. kenardy@psy.uq.edu.au
Li-Jen Tan
Affiliation:
The University of Queensland, Australia.
*
*Address for correspondence: Dr Justin Kenardy, Centre of National Research on Disability and Rehabilitation Medicine, Mayne School of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Herston QLD 4006, Australia.
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Abstract

Little research has been undertaken to examine the empirical basis of commonly applied methods of posttrauma intervention. We propose that Pennebaker's work on structured disclosure of trauma provides a suitable analogue to explore questions of interest. The present study asks whether avoidance coping is likely to interfere with abbreviated disclosure of traumatic experiences. Subjects were 118 college students randomly allocated to either a one-session or four-session written trauma-disclosure condition. At 2 months postdisclosure, subjects with high avoidance coping within the one-session condition exhibited significantly more trauma-specific and physical symptoms than all other subjects. Avoidance coping significantly predicted trauma-specific symptoms at 2 months. These findings suggest that single session traumatic disclosure may not be useful for individuals with an avoidance style of coping.

Type
Standard Papers
Information
Behaviour Change , Volume 23 , Issue 1 , 01 March 2006 , pp. 42 - 54
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2006

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