Coping Strategies in Daily Life as Protective and Risk Factors for Post Traumatic Stress in Motor Vehicle Accident Survivors

To investigate the role of a general coping style in the development and maintainance of PTSD-like symptoms, we investigated 44 survivors of severe motor vehicle accidents. Coping was assessed using a German instrument. We also included personality traits such as neuroticism and extraversion, peritraumatic and cognitive factors that are linked to both PTSD and coping in daily life. Stepwise regressions were computed to explain overall PTSD symptoms and symptom clusters (intrusion, avoidance, hyperarousal). Extraversion and neuroticism, cognitive factors, and subjective trauma characteristics predicted total PTSD severity and the symptom clusters, respectively. Additionally, the results indicate that the coping of a person in daily life plays a role in the development and maintenance of PTSD symptoms. We identified both protective factors such as situation control and self-aggrandizement and risk factors such as avoidance and self-blame.