TY - JOUR
T1 - Do measures of post-trauma factors better explain PTSD severity than pre-trauma factors? An empirical reply to Ogle et al.
AU - van der Velden, Peter
AU - van der Knaap, Leontien
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - Ogle, Rubin and Siegler (2016) concluded that post-event risk factors account for PTSD-symptomatology much better than pre-trauma factors. However, in their study several post-event predictors such as involuntary recall and physical reactions to trauma memory, were related to and assessed simultaneously with PTSD-symptomatology. Removing content-related items from the PTSD measure would, according to the authors, ensure that results were not being driven by potential content overlap. In the present prospective study (n=887) we test their assumption that removing such items prevents that results are overlap-driven. Correlational and multiple regression analyses showed that the associations between pre-event mental health and neuroticism on the one side, and PTSD-symptomatology on the other, were equal regardless if and which symptom cluster of PTSD was removed from our PTSD measure. Based on these findings we conclude that Ogle et al.’s assumption need to be rejected.
AB - Ogle, Rubin and Siegler (2016) concluded that post-event risk factors account for PTSD-symptomatology much better than pre-trauma factors. However, in their study several post-event predictors such as involuntary recall and physical reactions to trauma memory, were related to and assessed simultaneously with PTSD-symptomatology. Removing content-related items from the PTSD measure would, according to the authors, ensure that results were not being driven by potential content overlap. In the present prospective study (n=887) we test their assumption that removing such items prevents that results are overlap-driven. Correlational and multiple regression analyses showed that the associations between pre-event mental health and neuroticism on the one side, and PTSD-symptomatology on the other, were equal regardless if and which symptom cluster of PTSD was removed from our PTSD measure. Based on these findings we conclude that Ogle et al.’s assumption need to be rejected.
KW - PTSD, trauma, risk factors, mental health, neuroticism
U2 - DOI: 10.1177/2167702616654906
DO - DOI: 10.1177/2167702616654906
M3 - Article
SN - 2167-7026
VL - 5
SP - 141
EP - 145
JO - Clinical Psychological Science
JF - Clinical Psychological Science
IS - 1
ER -