Date of Award

Spring 2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Department

Psychology

Committee Chairperson

Michael Gawrysiak, Ph.D

Committee Member

Sandra Kerr, Ph.D

Committee Member

Jodi McKibben, Ph.D

Committee Member

Kristen Breit, Ph.D

Abstract

Background: In 2020, 93,331 people died from drug overdoses (CDC, 2021), a 32% increase from the year prior and the largest figure recorded in a single year. Understanding the risk and resilience factors are crucial to taking steps towards slowing this trend. Robust research identifies trauma exposure as a risk factor for substance use. Emerging research suggests that dispositional mindfulness and reward probability as risk-resilience factors for substance use. The current study examines two of these potential factors: dispositional mindfulness and reward probability. Method: In a cross-sectional design, residents of a drug rehabilitation program who endorsed opioid use (n = 134) were administered the following self-report measures via Qualtrics by a trained research assistant: the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5; Blevins et al., 2015), Opioid Craving Scale (OCS; McHugh et al., 2014), Cognitive Affective Mindfulness Scale – Revised (CAMS-R; Kumar, 2005; Kumar et al., 2005), and the Reward Probability Index (RPI; Carvalho et al., 2011). A Hayes PROCESS (Hayes, 2017) serial mediation model evaluated the hypotheses that Reward Probability and Dispositional Mindfulness would mediate the relationship between posttraumatic stress severity and drug craving, a proxy measure for substance use severity. Results: Reward Probability and Dispositional Mindfulness did not significantly mediate the relationship between posttraumatic stress severity and substance use severity. However, statistically significant were found between the variables that have clinical implications. Conclusions: The results of the current study support further exploration into the clinical utility of including behavioral activation into mindfulness-based treatments for substance use and trauma-based disorders.

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