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Trauma and Stressor Related Disorders and Disasters

(PS11-C59) Social and Systemic Factors Related to Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Severity: Loneliness and Discrimination Predict PTSD in Women Exposed to Interpersonal Trauma

Saturday, November 18, 2023
2:30 PM – 3:30 PM PST
Location: Regency Ballroom, Level 7
An abundance of literature recognizes social support as one of the most important predictors of the emergence and maintenance of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD; Lauth-Lebens & Lauth, 2016). Loneliness, which is an individual’s perception that they have inadequate social support, can exacerbate stress levels following trauma exposure and increase risk for PTSD (Guay et al., 2006). Yet, much less research focuses on how systemic factors, such as experienced discrimination, can further predict and contribute to PTSD severity. Discrimination acts as a chronic stressor, which can also strain an individual’s psychological resources and increase PTSD vulnerability (Holiday et al., 2020). In the United States, women have substantially higher rates of PTSD compared to men (Breslau, 2002); exploring the social and systemic influences that contribute to their mental health is imperative to informing PTSD treatments. The current study tested a stepwise linear regression model to examine how loneliness and daily experienced discrimination predict PTSD severity in women exposed to interpersonal trauma. We hypothesized that greater loneliness and experienced daily discrimination would predict higher PTSD severity.

Methods: Thirty-one women (M age = 32.19, SD = 5.26; 47 % racial/ethnic minority) with a history of interpersonal trauma were recruited from the greater Maryland, Virginia, and Washington DC area. These women completed a battery of self-report measures including the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5, Blevents et al., 2015), the Intersectional Discrimination Index (IDI; Scheim & Bauer; 2019), and the Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale (RULS-6; Wongpakare et al., 2020).

Results: Loneliness and daily experienced discrimination significantly predicted PTSD symptom severity. Loneliness, entered in the first step, accounted for 22% of the variance in PTSD symptoms (F = 6.75, p = .02). In the second step, loneliness and daily discrimination accounted for 38% of the variance in PTSD symptoms (F = 7.13. P = .01); however, only daily discrimination significantly predicted PTSD (t = 2.47, p </span>= 0.02), while the effect between loneliness and PTSD attenuated to a nonsignificant level (t = 1.84, p </span>= .08).

Conclusions: Both loneliness and daily experienced discrimination are important predictors in the development and maintenance of PTSD symptoms in women who have experienced interpersonal trauma. Surprisingly, loneliness was less important in predicting PTSD severity when accounting for experiences of discrimination. For women with PTSD, assessments for experienced discrimination are not routinely conducted; findings from the study suggest that measuring and addressing the impact of discrimination may be vital in PTSD treatment.
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