Testing Cognitive Flexibility in the Relationship Between Traumatic Events, Posttraumatic Symptoms, and Nonmuricidal Self-injury

Abstract

Individuals with PTSD use a various strategies to manage their symptoms, such as nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI; Smith et al., 2014). Cognitive flexibility has evidence of being related to NSSI. Research shows that cognitive inflexibility is associated with increased NSSI (Fallah et al., 2023). While many studies report that cognitive inflexibility is a significant predictor of future NSSI behaviors (Antezana, 2022), while other studies disagreed (Chung et al. 2023). The Wisconsin Card Sorting Task (WCST) is used to assess cognitive flexibility (Heaton, 1981). It is important to continue to evaluate how cognitive flexibility relates to NSSI using both self-report and the WCST. Cognitive flexibility has also been associated with less severe posttraumatic symptoms over time (Ben-Zion et al., 2018). I aimed to evaluate the role of cognitive flexibility in the relationship between PTSD symptoms and NSSI. Undergraduate students completed a survey with the WCST and measures of cognitive flexibility, NSSI, traumatic events, and PTSD symptoms. There was not a significant mediation or moderation model for cognitive flexibility between PTSD and NSSI. There was no relationship between PTSD symptoms and NSSI. However, PTSD symptoms correlated with self-report cognitive flexibility (r = -.42, p < .05) and traumatic events correlated with PTSD symptoms (r = .46, p< .01).