Do childhood experiences influence associations between posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and positive autobiographical memories among military veteran students? An exploratory study

ABSTRACT

Background

Evidence links posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and features of positive autobiographical memories (accessibility, vividness, coherence, sharing, emotional intensity, distancing). There is a knowledge gap on how adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and benevolent childhood experiences (BCEs) may influence these relationships.

Objectives

The current study explored whether the number ACEs or BCEs moderated associations between PTSD symptom severity and features of positive autobiographical memories.

Design and Methods

The sample included 124 student military veterans who had experienced a trauma (M_age= 33.90; 77.4% male; 75.0% White).

Results

Path analyses showed more PTSD symptom severity was significantly associated with less positive autobiographical memory vividness (β = −0.26, p = .019, R² = 0.06). Further, the number of ACEs moderated the relationship between PTSD symptom severity and positive autobiographical memory accessibility (β = −0.25, p = .023, R²= 0.10) and vividness (β = −0.20, p = .024, R²= 0.10). Among individuals with more ACEs (1 SD above the mean) compared to those with fewer ACEs (1 SD below the mean), less accessibility and vividness of positive autobiographical memories was associated with greater PTSD symptom severity. The number of BCEs was not a significant moderator.

Conclusions

Positive memory-based interventions may be particularly useful to address PTSD symptoms among military veterans with a history of childhood adversity.

KEYWORDS:

• Posttraumatic stress disorder
• positive autobiographical memories
• adverse childhood experiences
• benevolent childhood experiences
• military veteran students

Acknowledgements

We are thankful for the military veteran students from University of North Texas who participated in the study. We acknowledge the contributions of Ms. Aliya Izhar, Ms. Sidonia Compton, and Ms. Heather Lucke in data collection. We acknowledge contributions of the University of North Texas Team Mentoring Grant Program team members – Dr. Jessica Craig, Dr. Rachita Sharma, Dr. Danica Slavish, and Dr. Lydia Caldwell.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Funding details

Research reported in this publication was supported by the University of North Texas Team Grant Mentoring Program. Nicole H. Weiss acknowledges support from the Center for Biomedical Research and Excellence (COBRE) on Opioids and Overdose funded by the National Institute on General Medical Sciences (P20 GM125507). Predoctoral grant by the Spanish Ministry of Universities (FPU19/01468; EST23/00051) was granted to A. Miguel-Alvaro.

Conflict of interest

All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, [AAC], upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Ministerio de Universidades: [Grant Number FPU19/01468]; National Institute on General Medical Sciences: [Grant Number P20 GM125507]; University of North Texas: [Grant Number Team Grant Mentoring Program].