Cognitive and Emotional Processing in Narratives of Women Abused by Intimate Partners

• NCJ Number: 220578
• Journal: Violence Against Women Volume: 13 Issue: 11 Dated: November 2007 Pages: 1192-1205
• Author(s): Danielle Holmes; George W. Alpers; Tasneem Ismailji; Catherine Classen; Talor Wales; Valerie Cheasty; Andrew Miller; Cheryl Koopman
• Date Published: November 2007
• Length: 14 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study of 25 survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) focused on links between their cognitive and emotional processing of their experiences with changes in their pain and depression.

Abstract

This study indicates that specific linguistic indicators of emotional processing, as expressed in written trauma narratives, were associated with reduced bodily pain symptoms for women with a history of IPV. Although the expressive writing intervention did not result in women reporting an overall reduction in pain, the women who reported reductions in their pain could be identified from their writing. This suggests that an excessive expression of negative emotions in written trauma narratives may have negative consequences for an IPV survivor's physical health. Women who used higher mean levels of words that expressed positive emotions across their four writing sessions also tended to report increased bodily symptoms. A tentative explanation is that women who use high levels of positive emotions in their writing may be failing to confront their traumatic experiences, which contributes to stress-related health problems. Despite the lack of statistically significant findings in examining linguistic indications of changes in depression, two non-statistically significant trends suggest directions for future research: a greater number of positive-emotion words was associated with increased depression, and writing that makes causal connections is more likely to reflect decreased depressive symptoms. The women each met with a research assistant once a week for 5 weeks. They wrote alone in a quiet room. During each of the four weekly sessions, the women were asked to complete a written narrative about the most traumatic, stressful events of their lives. They were instructed to write expressively and emotionally in exploring their deepest emotions and feelings. The women completed instruments that measured demographics, depressive symptoms, and bodily pain. 38 references