Symposia
Positive Psychology
Gina Kuusisto, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)
US Department of Veterans Affairs
Edgewood, Washington
Mackenzie Cummings, B.A.
graduate student
Seattle Pacific University
Seattle, Washington
Sierra Sumner, B.A. (she/her/hers)
Graduate student
Seattle Pacific University
Seattle, Washington
Background: Women who experience the traumas of sex trafficking may endorse not only posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and poor well-being, but also few sources of upliftment or gratitude. Alternatively, strengths and resilience may exist even in challenging circumstances. The positive social emotions of moral elevation and gratitude are elicited by perceptions of others’ morally desirable acts toward others and the self, respectively. The aim of our study was qualitative and quantitative examination of experiences of elevation and gratitude in a sample of sex-trafficked women.
Method: Women recruited from drop-in shelters for sex-trafficked persons (n = 16) participated in qualitative interviews about both traumas and strengths. They also completed measures of trait gratitude, trait elevation, implicit moral identity, and well-being. College women (n = 50) served as a control group for between-group comparisons and total-sample quantitative analyses.
Results: As expected, sex-trafficked women reported severe trauma histories and higher levels of PTSD symptoms than controls (d = 2.13, 95%CI[1.45, 2.80]). However, in interviews, sex-trafficked women vividly described moral elevation experiences elicited by witnessing others' prosocial behaviors (e.g., women who escaped trafficking and gave back to the community; other parents modeling compassion to children; ethnic group pride). They described gratitude for relational, spiritual, and practical resources. Surprisingly, trait elevation and gratitude were not markedly lower in these women than in controls. In total-sample analyses, PTSD symptoms predicted lower well-being only for those low in trait elevation (b = -.78, SE = .19, p < .001), but not for those high on the trait (b = -.21, SE = .19, p = .26), suggesting a buffering effect.
Conclusion: Overall, findings attest to both significant trauma and strengths in trafficked women, with moral emotions such as elevation and gratitude as potential sources of resilience.
