Meharry Medical College, Nashville, TN, USA.
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
J Interpers Violence. 2021 Jun;36(11-12):5775-5794. doi: 10.1177/0886260518807905. Epub 2018 Oct 24.
Being stalked is a potentially traumatic experience associated with a threat to personal safety. Although major depression and posttraumatic stress (PTS) disorder are highly prevalent among stalking victims, little is known about factors associated with risk for the onset and maintenance of depressive and PTS symptoms in individuals with recent stalking exposure. The aim of this study was to determine the role of cognitive appraisals (negative views about the self, negative views about the world, self-blame) in the development of depressive and PTS symptoms in young adult women who had experienced stalking within 1 month of their baseline assessment. Participants ( = 82) completed self-report online surveys of posttraumatic cognitions and symptoms four times over the course of 3 months. Levels of posttraumatic cognitions among female stalking victims were comparable to those in other studies of trauma-exposed individuals. Multilevel models (MLMs) revealed that within-person changes in cognitions were differentially associated with concurrent changes in depressive and PTS symptoms over time, controlling for the influence of time, age, race, ethnicity, lifetime stalking victimization, childhood trauma exposure, and symptoms of the other disorder. Whereas more negative cognitions about the world were associated with higher levels of concurrent depressive and PTS symptoms, negative cognitions about the self were uniquely associated with higher concurrent depressive symptoms. Contrary to expectation, self-blame was not significantly associated with depressive or PTS symptoms. Results provided support for the potential utility of negative cognitions as risk markers for depressive and PTS symptoms in young adult female stalking victims. The present findings suggest that interventions targeting symptom-specific thinking patterns could help reduce risk for negative mental health outcomes associated with stalking victimization.
被跟踪是一种潜在的创伤经历，与个人安全受到威胁有关。虽然在跟踪受害者中，重度抑郁症和创伤后应激障碍（PTS）的发病率很高，但对于近期遭受跟踪的个体中，与抑郁和 PTS 症状发作和持续相关的风险因素知之甚少。本研究旨在确定认知评估（对自己的负面看法、对世界的负面看法、自责）在近期遭受跟踪的年轻成年女性中发展为抑郁和 PTS 症状中的作用。参与者（n=82）在基线评估后 1 个月内完成了四次关于创伤后认知和症状的在线自我报告调查。跟踪女性受害者的创伤后认知水平与其他创伤暴露个体的研究相当。多层次模型（MLMs）显示，随着时间的推移，认知的个体内变化与抑郁和 PTS 症状的同时变化相关，同时控制了时间、年龄、种族、民族、终生跟踪受害者、儿童期创伤暴露和其他疾病症状的影响。尽管对世界的消极认知与更高水平的同时抑郁和 PTS 症状相关，但对自己的消极认知与更高水平的同时抑郁症状相关。与预期相反，自责与抑郁或 PTS 症状没有显著相关。结果为消极认知作为年轻成年女性跟踪受害者抑郁和 PTS 症状风险标志物的潜在效用提供了支持。本研究结果表明，针对特定症状的思维模式的干预措施可能有助于降低与跟踪受害者相关的负面心理健康结果的风险。
