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The Mediating Role Of Coping On The Relationship Between Attachment Style And Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Among Suicidal African American Women, Wendy Heath-Gainer

Counseling and Psychological Services Dissertations

The literature on clinical interventions for suicide prevention indicates that low-income, suicidal African American females are an historically underserved population. Contributing to this lack of service are the intersecting influences of race, ethnicity, culture, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status and related oppressions (APA, 2007). In suicidal African American females, a higher level of reported symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder has been found in suicide attempters as compared to nonattempters (Kaslow et al., 2000), and PTSD has been shown to be associated with heightened risk of an ensuing suicide attempt (Wilcox, Storr, & Breslau, 2009). One factor affecting manifestation of PTSD …