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Trauma and Stressor Related Disorders and Disasters

Can we do better? Effectiveness of enhanced trigger warnings.

(PS13-81) Can We Do Better? Effectiveness of Enhanced Trigger Warnings

Sunday, November 17, 2024
9:00 AM – 10:00 AM EST
Location: Franklin Hall, Level 4, Marriott Downtown
Abstract Text:
Previous research in the trigger-warning literature has been unable to come to a consensus about their effectiveness (Bridgland et al., 2023). Some lines of research suggest that trigger warnings are counterproductive because of a self-fulfilling prophecy or, at best, are ineffective (e.g, Bruce et al. 2020, Bellet et al., 2018; Bryce et al., 2022). Bridgland and colleagues (2022) have suggested part of the failing of trigger warnings may be that they suggest the possibility of emotional distress, but do not provide help with how to tolerate that distress. Therefore, the present study aims to examine the effects of an enhanced trigger warning that also includes instructions for a distress tolerance skill.

Methods: At present, 32 (target N=60) young adults have completed experimental procedures after being randomized to one of three conditions, 1) no trigger warning, 2) a standard trigger warning similar to previous research (see Bruce et al., 2020) or 3) an enhanced trigger warning that included instructions for the five senses distress tolerance technique.  Participants then encountered a visual and literary stimulus from the film "Precious" and the novel "The Bluest Eye" in counterbalanced order. Both the film clip and passage depicted scenes of domestic violence. Ratings of state affect were made before and after each stimulus and memory/comprehension questions were asked after each. Participants also completed a modified Adverse Childhood Experiences questionnaire (ACES), Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21 (DASS-21 Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995), Anxiety Sensitivity Index-3 (ASI-3,Taylor et al., 2007) Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS,Watson et al., 1988), Perceived Post-Trauma Vulnerability Scale – Self (Bellet et al., 2018), Words Can Harm Scale (Bellet et al., 2018) and assessments on attitudes towards trigger-warnings and history with therapuatic experiences to examine potential moderators.

Results: Mixed model ANOVAS were used to examine changes in positive and negative affect over time with trigger warning condition added as a between-subjects variable. With regard to changes in positive affect, preliminary analyses reveal significant effects of time such that all groups demonstrated a decrease in positive affect after watching the movie clip and reading the passage, with no impact of condition. For negative affect, although not significant in our preliminary analyses, results indicated effect sizes in the medium to large range for the interaction between time and condition for both the movie clip (F (2, 15) = 1.15, p = .32, partial h2 = .13) and passage (F (2, 15) = 1.84, p = .19, partial h2 = .20) such that those in the enhanced trigger warning condition did not experience an increase in negative affect after each distressing presentation, while the remaining two groups did.  These preliminary results demonstrate the potential of enhanced trigger warnings for distressing material. Further exploration of potential moderators will be included with full sample analyses.