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Miscarriage often is a traumatic experience with serious mental health implications. Friends and family members are often uncomfortable with and avoid discussing the topic with bereaved individuals, potentially making them feel ostracized (i.e., being ignored and excluded), contributing to their mental health concerns. We investigated the correlation between posttraumatic stress symptoms, perceived ostracism, and recalled grief intensity measures in a sample of cisgender women (N = 97) who have had a miscarriage. These participants were recruited using Qualtrics’s Panel Recruitment Services. Women’s perceived ostracism correlated positively with posttraumatic stress symptoms and negatively with grief congruence (i.e., the degree to which they felt that their miscarriage process was as satisfactory as possible, given they had to experience it). Perceived ostracism also explained additional variance in posttraumatic stress symptoms when considered alongside grief intensity measures (e.g., congruence).

Miscarriage often is a traumatic experience with serious mental health implications. Friends and family members are often uncomfortable with and avoid discussing the topic with bereaved individuals, potentially making them feel ostracized (i.e., being ignored and excluded), contributing to their mental health concerns. We investigated the correlation between posttraumatic stress symptoms, perceived ostracism, and recalled grief intensity measures in a sample of cisgender women (N = 97) who have had a miscarriage. These participants were recruited using Qualtrics's Panel Recruitment Services. Women's perceived ostracism correlated positively with posttraumatic stress symptoms and negatively with grief congruence (i.e., the degree to which they felt that their miscarriage process was as satisfactory as possible, given they had to experience it). Perceived ostracism also explained additional variance in posttraumatic stress symptoms when considered alongside grief intensity measures (e.g., congruence). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keywords: social exclusion; trauma-informed approaches; ostracism; interpersonal rejection; substance use EN social exclusion trauma-informed approaches ostracism interpersonal rejection substance use 1 3 3 06/23/21 20210618 NES 210618 Introduction Humans have a central need to belong, their daily efforts predominately focused on forging - and maintaining - stable social connections (Baumeister and Leary, [2]; Lieberman, [18]; Gabriel, [11]). Social exclusion may be the I primary i cause (i.e., chronic social exclusion was the main trauma elicitor), or it may be a I secondary i cause; perhaps their initial trauma elicitor was something other than exclusion, and their subsequent substance misuse has led their previous social support network to exclude them. Trauma-informed treatment approaches often focus on social support as a key factor in trauma recovery (Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration, [30]). Discussion When someone seeks treatment for substance misuse or addiction, a therapist taking a trauma-informed approach should identify to what degree social exclusion contributes to their presenting concerns. [Extracted from the article]