Participants

Data for the present study were drawn from a larger study examining narrative writing as an intervention. All participants previously indicated they had experienced a PTE based on DSM-IV criteria (DSM-IV was used for this study as this version was still the commonly used edition when the larger study was originally designed). Participants were recruited through a university psychology department and received partial course credit for their participation. Participants were assessed at baseline (n=436), one (n=405), and two (n=344) months. Our sample was predominantly women (69%; n=307). The sample was 80.9% White (n=360), 7.2% Asian or Pacific Islander (n=32), 5.4% Black or African American (n=24), 3.1% multi-racial (n=14), 2.9% another race not listed (n=13), and .4% American Indian or Alaska Native (n=2). The majority of the sample was non-Hispanic or Latino (94.5%). The mean reported age was 18.79 years with 47.2% aged 18 years old (n=210) and 34.6% of participants aged 19 years old (n=154). Almost the entire sample (98.2%) was never married (n=435). This was a high-income sample with 59.2% of participants reporting their family income as $70,000 or more per year.