CONFIDANTS FEEDBACK AND TRAUMATIC LIFE EVENTS

One hundred six undergraduate (83 women and 23 men) completed surveys concerning their most traumatic life event, the feedback they received following their disclosure of the event to others, and how they felt after the disclosure. Results indicated that the better they felt afte r disclosure, the less disturbed they were by thoughts of the event at the time of the study. In addition, the more personal the trauma was, the worse they felt after their disclosure, and the more disturbed th ey were about the trauma. However, no significant relation existed bet ween the positivity (e.g, supportiveness) of their confidant's feedbac k and their present degree of disturbance. Implications for understand ing the complex relation between confiding traumatic events and resolv ing feelings surrounding those events were discussed.