Emotion Regulation Within Context: Understanding Buffering Effects on Chronic Pain and PTSD Among Black Women Who've Experienced Sexual Assault and Racism

Grace Packard; Keianna Moyer; Yara Mekawi; Ciara Corbett; Abigail Powers; Bekh Bradley; Sierra Carter

doi:10.1177/10778012241289430

Emotion Regulation Within Context: Understanding Buffering Effects on Chronic Pain and PTSD Among Black Women Who've Experienced Sexual Assault and Racism

Violence Against Women. 2024 Oct 16:10778012241289430. doi: 10.1177/10778012241289430. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Grace Packard¹, Keianna Moyer¹, Yara Mekawi², Ciara Corbett¹, Abigail Powers³, Bekh Bradley^{3

4}, Sierra Carter¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA.
² Department of Psychology, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, USA.
³ Department of Psychiatry and Brain Science, Emory School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA.
⁴ Atlanta VA Medical Center, Atlanta, GA, USA.

PMID: 39410904
DOI: 10.1177/10778012241289430

Abstract

Previous research has found that both racism and sexual assault are related to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and chronic pain. Black women have unique relationships to these stressors situated within contexts of oppression, and little is known about factors that may exacerbate these associations among Black women. Among Black women experiencing both racism and sexual assault (n = 148), emotion clarity moderated the relation between PTSD and chronic pain, β = .0126, SE = 0.0059, p < .05. Our findings support the importance of considering the place that psychological constructs like emotion regulation and traumatic stressors hold in contexts of oppression.

Keywords: PTSD; chronic pain; emotion regulation; racism; sexual assault.