Trauma & Social Inhibition: The Association Between Trauma and Interpersonal Behaviors

Clinical trauma is a pervasive occurrence and tends to impact the behavior of trauma survivors. Past research has examined the relationship between interpersonal problems and trauma; at the same time little research has examined the relationship between trauma type and associated interpersonal problems. This research sought to examine the difference in interpersonal problems displayed by survivors of varying trauma type. We separated our participants in three groups; sexual assault survivors, non-sexual physical assault survivors, and accident/natural disaster survivors. We found that sexual assault survivors tended to have higher rates of social inhibition and nonassertive behaviors than accident and non-sexual physical assault survivors. Gender differences did not significantly influence the interpersonal behavior findings.