Distinguishing between Iranian adolescents with posttraumatic stress disorder and high and low depressive symptoms: The role of cognitive and emotional variables.

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the role of cognitive and emotional variables in distinguishing between adolescents with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and either low or high symptoms of depression.

Method: Adolescents (N = 90) aged between 13 and 17 years (M_age = 15.53, SD = 1.13) who had been exposed to an earthquake in Iran and had (a) not developed PTSD (n = 30), (b) developed PTSD with low symptoms of depression (n = 30), and (c) developed PTSD with high symptoms of depression (n = 30) completed a clinical interview, cognitive tasks, and the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire.

Results: We found that those with PTSD had poorer performance on executive functioning (inhibition, cognitive flexibility, and working memory), episodic future thinking, and attention bias and had greater maladaptive emotion regulation strategies than healthy controls. Among those with PTSD, adolescents with high symptoms of depression performed worse on measures of executive function, attention bias, episodic future thinking, and the emotion regulation strategies of rumination and catastrophizing than adolescents with low depressive symptoms.

Conclusion: Exploring these cognitive and emotion difficulties can assist in further understanding PTSD and depression and improve targeted interventions among adolescents. This is of particular relevance in Iran where the need for policies and interventions targeting PTSD has been identified. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).