Posttraumatic stress symptoms and positive autobiographical memory characteristics in everyday life

Individuals with posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) report difficulties engaging with positive autobiographical memories. Extending this line of research, we examined daily-level concurrent and lagged associations between PTSS severity and positive memory characteristics (vividness, coherence, accessibility, time perspective, sensory details, visual perspective, emotional intensity, sharing, distancing, and valence). The sample included 88 trauma survivors (Mage = 39.89 years, 59.1% female) who completed seven daily measures of PTSS and positive memory characteristics. Multilevel models examined concurrent and lagged associations between PTSS severity and positive memory characteristics. The results indicated that days with higher PTSS severity were associated with less accessibility, beta = -.21, p < .001; less visual perspective, beta = -0.13, p = .034; and lower positive valence of the memory, beta = -.19, p = .003, as well as more emotional intensity associated with, beta = .13, p = .041, and more distancing from, beta = .21, p < .001, the memory. Supplemental lagged analyses indicated that higher previous-day PTSS severity was associated with more next-day distancing from, beta = .15, p = .042, and sensory details of, beta = .17, p = .016, the memory. Findings suggest that individuals with more severe PTSS have difficulties accessing positively valenced memories from a first-person perspective, are more distant from the recalled positive memory, and report more emotional intensity when retrieving the memory. Thus, improving access to and reducing distance from positive autobiographical memories, as well as addressing emotional intensity surrounding the retrieval of these memories, may be potential clinical targets for PTSS interventions.