(PS11-A3) Psychological Inflexibility Moderates the Association Between Family-of-origin Violence and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms

Exposure to family-of-origin violence (FOV) is a significant barrier to health and well-being across the lifespan. Previous studies have shown that FOV during childhood and adolescence is positively associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, including intrusive recall of the traumatic event, avoidance, decline in cognition and mood, and hyper-arousal (Margolin et al., 2007). However, not all children exposed to FOV display PTSD symptoms, suggesting that other variables moderate this relationship. Evidence suggests that health outcomes are worse when forms of childhood maltreatment are paired with psychological inflexibility, the tendency to avoid or escape unwanted internal experiences (e.g., negative thoughts or emotions) (Parfair et al., 2022). We examined psychological inflexibility as a moderator of the relationship between FOV and PTSD symptoms, hypothesizing that FOV would increase the risk for PTSD symptoms at medium and high, but not at low, levels of psychological inflexibility. Using a sample of 263 undergraduate students (Mage = 19.21 years, 76.0% White, 62.0% female), we conducted multiple hierarchical regression analyses in PROCESS (Hayes, 2017) while statistically controlling for the effects of age and sex. We tested the association between FOV and PTSD symptoms at low (-1 SD), medium (at mean), and high (+1 SD) levels of psychological inflexibility. The association between FOV and PTSD symptoms was significant and positive at high (B=8.79, p< .01), but not at low (B=-1.72, p=.67) or medium (B=3.54, p=.16) levels of psychological inflexibility. These results suggest that high levels of psychological inflexibility are associated with higher prevalence of PTSD symptoms in people exposed to FOV. Treatment interventions that improve psychological flexibility, such as those provided in cognitive behavioral therapy, could offer an additional pathway to help FOV survivors overcome the damaging psychological effects of trauma and potentially limit adverse health outcomes. We believe that a clinical approach that focuses on flexibility could promote adaptability, resilience, and empowerment even in the face of childhood trauma.