Written by Ellie McAfee
An important part of how we disseminate our work prior to publication is to share study results with the academic community. Grady Trauma Project team members headed to Los Angeles, CA this November to present research findings at the International Society of Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS) 2023 conference.
Ms. Ellie McAfee presented a poster on the association between posttraumatic stress symptom severity and mindfulness in a sample of trauma-exposed Black Americans. This research was conducted with the Mindfulness in Primary Care (MPC) study dataset led by Dr. Abigail Lott. We found that greater levels of mindfulness were related to lower levels of posttraumatic stress symptoms among those with low-to-moderate physical violence exposure, but not at high levels of violence exposure.
Additionally, Dr. Stevens and Dr. Michopoulos presented findings in a symposium titled “Conceptualizing disparities and differences in the neurobiology of trauma-related psychopathology.” They described the influence of sex and race-related factors on trauma-related physical and mental health outcomes. Overall, it was a great experience attending the ISTSS 2023 conference, and we were grateful for the chance to learn about advancements in trauma-related research and present some of our work to the ISTSS community.
Image: Ellie McAfee presenting her poster on "The Role of Mindfulness and Self Compassion in Mitigating Posttraumatic Stress Symptom Severity following Physical Violence Exposure among Black Americans" at the 2023 ISTSS conference in Los Angeles, CA.