| Previous research has linked a high rate of specific recall of autobiographical memory to high levels of adjustment (PTSD and depressive symptoms). Studies with specificity tended to use the Autobiographical Memory Test, a structured measure that elicits memories in response to emotional cue words. The current study has used a narrative approach that approximates a natural condition. It delineated two forms that measure specific recall---over-general and specific---in one hundred and ten single memory narratives of female subjects, adolescent to young women in age, roughly half of whom were survivors of childhood sexual abuse. The narrative measures, which had been previously treated as mirror images of each other, were found not to be equal in predicting adjustment. Specific recall was found to be the predominant form of specificity in producing consistent associations with adjustment---PTSD and depressive symptoms; higher rates corresponded to higher levels of adjustment. In addition, mediation analyses revealed that dissociative experiences fully mediate the relationships between specific recall and PTSD and depressive symptoms, with higher levels of dissociation linked to lower levels of specific recall. Similarly, increases in severity of trauma led to decrease in specific recall. |
