Relations among emotion regulation and DSM-5 symptom clusters of PTSD

Emotion regulation has been implicated as a risk and maintaining factor for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Three aspects of emotion regulation have demonstrated the strongest relations with PTSD symptoms: experiential avoidance, rumination, and thought suppression. Given that emotion regulation has demonstrated differential relations with DSM-IV PTSD symptom clusters, the current study sought to examine these relations with the DSM-5 symptom clusters of PTSD. Participants were recruited via Amazon's Mechanical Turk (N = 403). All participants endorsed trauma exposure. Measures included the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5), the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II (AAQ-II), the negative affect scale of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS-NA; included as a control variable), the Ruminative Responses Scale (RRS), and the White Bear Suppression Inventory (WBSI). A path analysis model in Mplus indicated that the AAQ-II demonstrated large effects with all four PTSD symptom clusters. Of those relations, the largest was observed for the AAQ-II and the Negative Alterations in Cognition and Mood cluster of PTSD. Results suggest that individual variation in PTSD symptoms may have implications for the salience of particular emotion regulation strategies.