Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Click here to sign up for SAGE Journal Email Alerts today!

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Journal of Language and Social Psychology
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Web of Science (1)
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Davidson, A. C.
Right arrow Articles by Moss, S. A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Examining the Trauma Disclosure of Police Officers to Their Partners and Officers' Subsequent Adjustment

Ann C. Davidson

Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia

Simon A. Moss

Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia

Disclosure of traumatic experiences is related to health benefits and is central to therapy for individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, neither naturalistic patterns of trauma disclosures nor the outcomes of such disclosures have been established empirically. This article reports the development and preliminary psychometric evaluation of a 16-item instrument assessing characteristics of traumatic event disclosure— inhibition, emotional disclosure, and cognitive disclosure—to spouses. Furthermore, the association between the trauma disclosure of 103 Australian police officers and their adjustment is presented. The disclosure subscales demonstrate adequate internal consistency and also predict several psychological outcomes. Consistent with prior literature, officers who did not discuss their trauma experience experienced more psychological distress and traumatic stress. However, failure to observe benefits for cognitive disclosure is discussed with regard to the role of negative appraisals in PTSD and differences between naturalistic and experimental disclosure.

Key Words: emotional trauma • disclosure • police personnel • scale development • spouses

Journal of Language and Social Psychology, Vol. 27, No. 1, 51-70 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0261927X07309511
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?