Temporal Associations Between Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms and Depression in Response to Online Expressive Writing Interventions in a Hispanic Sample

Abstract

Some expressive writing (EW) interventions targeting post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) may reduce both PTSS and comorbid depression symptoms. The temporal associ-ations between PTSS and depression symptom levels in response to EW interventions are unknown. This study examined the directionality of PTSS and depression symp-tom levels from baseline to 1-week, 1-month, and 3-month follow-ups of two online EW interventions in a Hispanic sample with diverse trauma experiences. Participants (n = 70) completed either emotion-focused or fact-focused writing for 3 consecutive days online. A manifest autore-gressive model with cross-lagged effects and treatment con-dition was analyzed. All but one first-order autoregressive path were statistically significant, with later PTSS and depression scores significantly predicted by those scores at preceding time points. The cross-lagged effects findings suggest that earlier PTSS levels influenced later depression levels, but earlier depression did not influence later PTSS, demonstrating a unidirectional temporal association. Sev-ere PTSS may hinder EW treatment gains in depression. Superior outcomes for emotion-focused writing relative to fact-focused writing were also found.