Ashamed or afraid? Traumatic symptom severity and emotional activations of Covid-19-related events

Cesare Cavalera; Angélica Quiroga; Osmano Oasi

doi:10.1016/j.ajp.2023.103500

Ashamed or afraid? Traumatic symptom severity and emotional activations of Covid-19-related events

Asian J Psychiatr. 2023 Apr:82:103500. doi: 10.1016/j.ajp.2023.103500. Epub 2023 Feb 4.

Authors

Cesare Cavalera¹, Angélica Quiroga², Osmano Oasi³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano. Electronic address: cesarem.cavalera@unicatt.it.
² Department of Psychology, Universidad de Monterrey, Monterrey.
³ Department of Psychology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano.

Abstract

This study investigates the role of shame, guilt, and fear activations related to Covid-19 stressful experiences in predicting traumatic symptoms. We focused on 72 Italian adults recruited in Italy. The primary outcome was to explore the traumatic symptoms severity and negative emotions associated with COVID-19-related experiences. The presence of traumatic symptoms was met by a total of 36%. Shame and fear activations predicted traumatic scales. Qualitative content analysis identified Self-centered, and Externally-centered counterfactual thoughts and five relevant subcategories were also identified. The present findings suggest the importance of shame in the maintenance of traumatic symptoms related to COVID-19 experiences.

Keywords: COVID-19; Fear; Guilt; Shame; Stress; Traumatic symptoms.

MeSH terms

Adult
COVID-19* / complications
Emotions
Fear
Guilt
Humans
Shame
Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic* / diagnosis