About this Research Topic
Trauma can cause both positive and negative psychological outcomes. Positive outcomes include post-traumatic growth, which refers to the experience of positive psychological changes that occur as a result of the struggle with life crises. Positive outcomes can occur in the long-term period after a trauma. Individuals who challenge their core beliefs that were disrupted by trauma may find an opportunity to experience psychological growth, with improved psychological functioning in different domains (e.g., improved relations with others, greater personal strength). At the same time, traumatic events can also induce people to experience negative emotional responses, resulting in post-traumatic stress and anxiety/depressive symptoms. In the occurrence of both positive and negative psychological reactions, emotional functioning (i.e., awareness, expression, and regulation of emotions) appears to play a key role. Emotional functioning abilities can allow the individuals to manage, recognize, and express the intense negative feelings associated with the traumatic experience, leading them to cope better with the event.
The goal of this Research Topic is to shed further light on controversial aspects concerning the psychological consequences of a traumatic event. Studies demonstrate that post-traumatic growth and psychological distress could coexist, since the growth may emerge from the struggle with coping and not from the trauma itself. However, future research is needed to clarify the role of emotions to further explain the associations between negative and positive psychological outcomes in the aftermath of a traumatic event. Specifically, the role that emotional functioning abilities can play in coping with the traumatic experience requires further investigations, in order to identify those emotional processes that can promote a positive psychological outcome directly or indirectly by being able to rely on multiple coping strategies to predispose the individuals to prevent from high levels of psychological distress after the traumatic event.
Bringing together leading experts to present recent advances on the psychological consequences of a traumatic event may allow initiating an intense and deeper discussion about the current state of the art and the open controversies regarding both the clinical and the neuroscientific evidence. Therefore, we solicit original research articles, reviews, method papers, case studies, but also opinion papers and general commentaries that have their core focus on the aftermath of a traumatic event. Interdisciplinary studies in the fields of clinical and health psychology, and neuroscience are welcome.
Suggested themes:
• Emotional functioning and trauma
• Post-traumatic growth and trauma
• Post-traumatic stress and trauma
• Psychopathological disorders and trauma
• Resilience and trauma
• Attachment style and complex trauma
• Alexithymia, emotion regulation, and affective theory of mind: links with complex trauma
• Childhood trauma: consequences in adulthood
• Psychological assessment and trauma
• The psychological treatment of individuals with negative psychological outcomes after a traumatic event.
The goal of this Research Topic is to shed further light on controversial aspects concerning the psychological consequences of a traumatic event. Studies demonstrate that post-traumatic growth and psychological distress could coexist, since the growth may emerge from the struggle with coping and not from the trauma itself. However, future research is needed to clarify the role of emotions to further explain the associations between negative and positive psychological outcomes in the aftermath of a traumatic event. Specifically, the role that emotional functioning abilities can play in coping with the traumatic experience requires further investigations, in order to identify those emotional processes that can promote a positive psychological outcome directly or indirectly by being able to rely on multiple coping strategies to predispose the individuals to prevent from high levels of psychological distress after the traumatic event.
Bringing together leading experts to present recent advances on the psychological consequences of a traumatic event may allow initiating an intense and deeper discussion about the current state of the art and the open controversies regarding both the clinical and the neuroscientific evidence. Therefore, we solicit original research articles, reviews, method papers, case studies, but also opinion papers and general commentaries that have their core focus on the aftermath of a traumatic event. Interdisciplinary studies in the fields of clinical and health psychology, and neuroscience are welcome.
Suggested themes:
• Emotional functioning and trauma
• Post-traumatic growth and trauma
• Post-traumatic stress and trauma
• Psychopathological disorders and trauma
• Resilience and trauma
• Attachment style and complex trauma
• Alexithymia, emotion regulation, and affective theory of mind: links with complex trauma
• Childhood trauma: consequences in adulthood
• Psychological assessment and trauma
• The psychological treatment of individuals with negative psychological outcomes after a traumatic event.
Keywords: Emotional functioning, trauma, post-traumatic growth, post-traumatic stress, anxiety/depressive symptoms
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
