Exposure to Trauma, Emotional Reactivity, and Its Interaction as Predictors of the Intensity of PTSD Symptoms in the Aftermath of Motor Vehicle Accidents

Abstract

The aim of the study was to analyze the relationship between emotional reactivity, exposure to trauma and its interaction, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in motor vehicle accident (MVA) survivors. Both emotional reactivity and exposure to trauma were expected to be significant predictors of the intensity of PTSD symptoms. Exposure to trauma was considered as a total score but also as successive indexes, such as threat to life during an accident, injuries sustained in the aftermath of an accident, emotions felt during an accident, dissociation experiences, and the amount of material losses. Emotional reactivity was also expected to play the role of moderator, increasing the positive relationship between exposure to trauma and PTSD symptoms in people characterized by higher emotional reactivity. The analyses were performed in two separate samples. The first sample consists of 458 MVA survivors who had a traffic collision up to six months before the study. The second sample (n = 674) comprises MVA survivors who had an accident more than six but less than twentyfour months before the study. The correlation and regression analyses revealed that, as expected, both emotional reactivity and exposure to trauma are significant predictors of PTSD symptoms, which explained about one-third of total variance of symptoms. The hierarchical regression with interactions between emotional reactivity and exposure to trauma also supports the hypothesis that emotional reactivity can be a moderator and the MVA survivors who are more emotionally reactive develop more intensive PTSD symptoms when confronted with severe and stressful experience.