Existing empirical findings are inconsistent on the correlations of shame and guilt with posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). This study aimed to quantitatively summarize the strength of the associations of shame and guilt with PTSS and explore potential moderators. Based on a three-level meta-analytic method, shame was positively correlated with PTSS, no matter whether the effects of guilt were controlled; guilt also had a positive correlation with PTSS, regardless of whether the effects of shame were partialling out. Moderator analyses showed that type of shame measure (generalized vs. contextual vs. trauma-specific shame) moderated the relation between shame and PTSS, and type of guilt measure (generalized vs. contextual vs. trauma-specific guilt) moderated the relation between guilt and PTSS. In addition, culture had a marginally significant moderating effect on the relation between guilt and PTSS, with a stronger association of guilt with PTSS in Western culture than in Eastern culture. These results supported the links of shame and guilt to PTSS and implied that we should focus on the conceptual underpinnings of the manifest psychometric issue and maintain cultural sensitivity in future research. The implications for posttraumatic stress disorder treatment were also discussed.

关于羞耻和内疚与创伤后压力症状 (PTSS) 的相关性，现有的实证研究结果不一致。本研究旨在定量总结羞耻感和内疚感与 PTSS 的关联强度，并探索潜在的调节因素。基于三级元分析方法，无论是否控制内疚的影响，羞耻感都与PTSS呈正相关；无论羞耻的影响是否被部分抵消，内疚也与 PTSS 呈正相关。调节器分析表明，羞耻感的类型（广义与情境与创伤特定的羞耻感）调节了羞耻感和 PTSS 之间的关系，而内疚感测量的类型（广义与情境与创伤特定的内疚感）调节了内疚感之间的关系和PTSS。此外，文化对内疚和 PTSS 之间的关系有轻微显着的调节作用，与东方文化相比，西方文化中内疚与 PTSS 的关联更强。这些结果支持羞耻感和内疚感与 PTSS 之间的联系，并暗示我们应该关注明显心理测量问题的概念基础，并在未来的研究中保持文化敏感性。还讨论了对创伤后应激障碍治疗的影响。