Trauma reminders and disgust: The roles of posttraumatic stress disorder symptom severity, trauma type, and reminder type

Abstract

Disgust is a common emotional response to trauma but is studied less frequently than fear or other negative emotions. In laboratory settings, individuals with a history of sexual assault report more disgust following exposure to trauma reminders than those exposed to other trauma types, and people with more severe posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms typically report more disgust than those with lower symptom levels. It remains unknown whether this association is also present in ecological contexts and if these associations vary by trauma reminder type. The present sample included 80 trauma-exposed community members (PTSD: n = 39, no PTSD: n = 41) who completed up to 17 prompts per day for 3 days (2,158 total completed surveys). Multilevel models indicated that trauma reminders were associated with increased feelings of disgust, B = 0.16, SE = 0.06, p < .001, which was consistent across trauma reminder types, p < .001–p = .001. PTSD symptom severity moderated the association between trauma reminders and disgust such that it was stronger for participants with higher CAPS-5 scores, B = 0.02, SE = 0.01, p = .011. All trauma reminder types demonstrated the same pattern of moderation, ps = .003–.022, except flashbacks, p = .070. Trauma type was not a significant moderator of any trauma reminder type, ps = .193–.929. These findings suggest that trauma reminders encountered in daily life are associated with feelings of disgust. The results underscore the importance of exploring disgust as a trauma-related emotional experience among trauma survivors.