Michael Weinberg
Senior lecturer
Title: Personality traits and trauma exposure: The relationship between personality traits and PTSD symptoms, stress, and negative affect following exposure to traumatic cues
Biography
Biography: Michael Weinberg
Abstract
Exposure to traumatic events can lead to PTSD and various types of emotional distress. Aside from the exposure itself, numerous factors are relevant for the development of emotional distress following a traumatic event. Therefore, the present study aimed to examine the relationship between the six HEXACO personality traits and PTSD symptoms, stress, and negative affect following traumatic cues that can evoke emotional distress. Two hundred and forty-nine participants (N=249)completed demographic and personality-trait questionnaires. An hour after filling out those questionnaires, the participants were asked to watch a 3-minute video clip of a series of terror attacks. After watching the video clip, the participants filled out PTSD-symptom, perceived-stress, and negative-affect questionnaires.
Structural-equation-model (SEM) analyses showed that PTSD symptoms were positively associated with past trauma, negatively associated with honesty-humility, positively associated with emotionality, and negatively associated with extraversion. Stress was positively associated with emotionality, negatively associated with extraversion, and negatively associated with agreeableness. Negative affect was negatively associated with honesty-humility, positively associated with emotionality, negatively associated with extraversion, and negatively associated with agreeableness.
Aim & Objectives: Exposure to traumatic events can lead to PTSD and various types of emotional distress. The relationship between personality traits and PTSD symptoms, stress, and negative affect
Material & Methods: This study demonstrates the importance of HEXACO personality traits in coping with numerous aspects of emotional distress following trauma exposure.
Results: To examine the evolution of the types of youth mental health problems observed in an emergency unit in a child and adolescent psychiatric department over the last three decades.
Conclusion: In conclusion, using a comparison of data collected at four periods over the last three decades, we found that demographic and clinical changes exist in the types of youth mental health problems presenting to an emergency in a context of increasing demand. In particular, increasing proportions of emergency consultations are motivated by anxiety and depressive mood and are directly requested by the family.