Changes in happy and sad emotions across the course of the PTSD Coach Online—Arabic intervention: a latent growth curve analysis

Exposure to socio-political violence is associated with increased levels of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). The current study explores prospective patterns of emotion change among Egyptian adults (N = 87) across 8 weekly timepoints, all of whom endorsed elevated PTSS. Participants were randomized to either have access to the PTSD Coach Online—Arabic app (n = 41) or be enrolled in a waitlist control (n = 46). A series of latent growth curve models were fit to evaluate within-group change in the basic emotions of sadness and happiness. For sad ratings, a quadratic model with random effects best fit the data and the treatment group was included as a predictor of growth factors. Enrollment in the treatment group predicted significantly lower rates of sadness during the final week of the intervention (b = −.35, S.E. = .15, p = .020) and at the endline assessment (b = −.42, S.E. = .21, p = .043). Neither the linear nor quadratic growth model fit well for the happy models. These results suggest enrollment in the intervention predicted improvements in sadness among adults affected by PTSS.