| Managing intrusive thoughts associated with sexual assault is important in addressing treatment needs of assault reactions. There are various techniques to cope with intrusive thoughts including suppression and expression writing or thought disclosure. Suppression, disclosure, and free expression (a control condition) were investigated in order to better understand the role of cognitive coping strategies on sexual assault intrusive thoughts. Participants included 48 women incarcerated at the Pocatello Women's Correctional Center. Participants wrote their thoughts for three 10 minute trials and completed several questionnaires in order to investigate: (1) the frequency and intrusive quality of sexual assault thoughts, (2) the effect of suppression and factual disclosure on subsequent (rebound) intrusive thoughts, (3) the relationship between intrusive thoughts and PTSD, and (4) the relationship between suppression, written disclosure, and PTSD. Instructions for writing Trials 1 and 3 were the same for all participants, and these trials provided the baseline and final measure of sexual assault thoughts. Writing Trial 2 was the experimental manipulation. One-third of the women were instructed to write about their sexual assault (Disclosure), one-third instructed not to think about the assault (Suppression), and one-third instructed to write about any thoughts that come to mind (Control). Analyses revealed that both suppressing and disclosing intrusive sexual assault thoughts led to a rebound (increase) in intrusive thoughts over time. Conversely, instructions to freely express intrusive thoughts led to a decrease in intrusive sexual assault thoughts over time. Further, freely expressing sexual assault intrusive thoughts led to an increase in perceived control of intrusive thoughts and a decrease in distress. These results have implications for possible treatment interventions related to sexual assault ruminations which might thereby decrease the negative impact of sexual assault on women. |
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