Though promising, the current investigation has several noteworthy limitations to be considered in interpreting the present findings and advancing this line of empirical inquiry. First, as previously noted, the present study employed a cross-sectional design, not permitting an examination of the temporal relations of the variables studied. Thus, it is important for future work to replicate and extend the concurrent associations documented in the present investigation using prospective designs. Second, the racial/ethnic homogeneity of the current sample limits the generalizability of the findings, underscoring the importance of replication with more diverse samples. Third, observed associations between self-report measures of PTS, DT, and coping motives may be inflated due to shared method variance. Future studies would be strengthened by multi-method assessment strategies (e.g., laboratory tasks with physiological monitoring, structured interviews of psychological and substance use symptoms). Fourth, the current trauma-exposed sample exhibited relatively low levels of PTS symptom severity, with only 5.6% of the sample meeting criteria for PTSD, limiting the extent to which these findings are generalizable to clinical samples with PTSD. Additionally, PTS symptom severity was found to be
