The moderating roles of emotion regulation and coping self-efficacy on the association between PTSD symptom severity and drug use among female sexual assault survivors.

Mahoney, Cestodio, Porter, & Marchant (2022) published “The Moderating Roles of Emotion Regulation and Coping Self-efficacy on the Association Between PTSD Symptom Severity and Drug Use Among Female Sexual Assault Survivors in Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy. They begin by observing that, “Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance use disorders are a significant comorbid concern among sexual assault survivors.”

They asked 518 female undergrads to complete self-report measures of nonconsensual sexual experiences, PTSD symptoms, CSE, emotion dysregulation, and drug use severity. Over 55% (287) women reported at least one incident of attempted or completed rape. They found, “evidence of a significant moderation effect, suggesting that high levels of CSE and low levels of emotion dysregulation reduce the likelihood of drug use issues for female sexual assault survivors.” Not surprisingly, they conclude, “that assessment tools, interventions, and trauma-related policies should target CSE and emotion dysregulation in attenuating the risk of drug use for women with assault-related PTSD symptoms.” 

There is more information about the Coping Self-Efficacy Scale athttps://www.midss.org and I found several other sources generally supportive of its use. It makes sense to me that including it along with measures of emotion self-regulation can assist those working with sexual assault survivors.