1 - (SYM 16) Profiles of Informal Support Providers Posttrauma: Identifying Strained Supporters & Predictors of Profile Membership

Social support plays a critical role in trauma recovery; however, the quality and availability of posttrauma support can vary substantially (Ullman, 2023; Wang et al., 2021). In particular, trauma survivors posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) can be highly taxing on support providers (Monson et al., 2010), and may contribute to erosions in support quality and quantity (Wang et al., 2021). While heterogeneity in support provider experiences is highly likely, this process is rarely examined from the support provider point of view. To inform targeted intervention efforts to promote effective informal social support, it is necessary to identify supporters who may struggle in this role.

In this study, we conducted a latent profile analysis (LPA) in a sample of 351 U.S.-based adult social support providers recruited via crowdsourcing. We included standardized indicators of perceived difficulty providing social support, supporter accommodation of trauma survivor anger and anxiety, and positive and negative caregiving appraisals.

A four-profile LPA identified distinct patterns of perceived difficulty providing social support, accommodation of survivor anger and anxiety, and caregiving appraisals. Profiles ranged from low difficulty/adaptive caregiving (n = 147; 43%) to high difficulty/high accommodation with elevated burden and guilt (n = 53; 15%), with high classification certainty (AvePPs > .90). Weighted multinomial logistic regression using posterior probabilities examined predictors of class membership. Higher supporter-perceived survivor PTSD predicted membership in more strained supporter profiles (ORs ≈ 1.03–1.05, ps < .001), whereas greater relationship satisfaction predicted membership in the low distress/adaptive class (ORs ≈ 0.76–0.90, ps < .01).

These findings highlight substantial heterogeneity in support provider experiences after trauma, and in particular highlighting the interpersonal consequences of trauma survivor PTSD symptoms on support providers’ appraisals of stepping into a caregiving role. Results suggest that interventions designed to improve and sustain social support must attend to the challenges that face support providers and shape their experiences.