Effects of Interpersonal Traumatic Experiences and Interpersonal Problems on Psychological Symptoms among College Students: Moderated Mediating Effect of Expressive Flexibility

Background: This study examined whether interpersonal problems mediated the relationship between subjective distress from interpersonal trauma and psychological symptoms, and whether emotional expression flexibility moderated this indirect effect.Methods: Self-reported measures were completed by 241 college students with interpersonal trauma experiences. Data were analyzed using correlation, mediation, and moderated mediation analyses. PROCESS Macro for SPSS was used.Results: Interpersonal problems partially mediated the relationship between interpersonal trauma-related distress and psychological symptoms. Furthermore, emotional expression enhancement significantly moderated the association between interpersonal trauma-related distress and problems; conversely, emotional expression suppression did not. The indirect effect through interpersonal problems was significant only at low and average levels of emotional expression enhancement.Conclusions: Emotional expression enhancement may buffer the negative effects of interpersonal trauma on interpersonal problems and psychological symptoms. These findings suggest that interventions for enhancing context-appropriate emotional expression may be useful for college students with interpersonal trauma experiences.