Behavioral inhibition and posttrauma symptomatology: Moderating effects of safety behaviors and biological sex.
OBJECTIVES
Behavioral inhibition is a trait-level factor associated with posttraumatic stress. Safety behaviors may impact this link by interfering with anxiety habituation. The current study examined the unique and interactive effects of behavioral inhibition, safety behaviors, and participant sex on posttrauma symptom clusters.


METHOD
Participants (N = 131; 75.6% female; M = 19.9 years) completed a trauma history interview and questionnaires assessing behavioral inhibition, safety behavior, and posttrauma symptom severity.


RESULTS
Safety behaviors were associated with intrusion (partial correlations [pr] = 0.319), avoidance (pr = 0.274), cognition-mood (pr = 0.274), and arousal-reactivity (pr = 0.538) symptoms (all p ≤ 0.001). An interaction of sex and safety behaviors was noted for avoidance (p = 0.047, pr = -0.159) with a significant relation observed only among women ( p < 0.001, pr = 0.442). Safety behaviors also moderated the link between behavioral inhibition and arousal-reactivity (p = 0.002, pr = 0.272) with inhibition predicting symptoms at high levels of safety behavior (p = 0.024, pr = 0.171).


CONCLUSION
Trauma-related safety behaviors are associated with greater posttrauma symptoms and evidence differential effects across individual symptom domains.
['McClure|Kenneth E|KE|', 'Blakey|Shannon M|SM|', 'Kozina|Ryan M|RM|', 'Ripley|Adam J|AJ|', 'Kern|Shira M|SM|0000-0003-4227-9954', 'Clapp|Joshua D|JD|0000-0003-2897-5363']
D003071:Cognition D005260:Female D015438:Health Behavior D006801:Humans D007266:Inhibition, Psychological D007407:Interviews as Topic D008297:Male D036301:Qualitative Research D012449:Safety D012725:Sexual Behavior D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires D055815:Young Adult
behavioral inhibition safety behaviors trauma PTSD sex differences