ORIGINAL PAPER Predictors of Differential Responding on a Sentence Completion Task in Traumatized Children Brittany B. Kugler • Marlene Bloom • Lauren B. Kaercher • Samantha Nagy • Tatyana V. Truax • Kevin M. Kugler • Joseph F. McGuire • Eric A. Storch Published online: 23 February 2012 Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012 Abstract Information-processing theories posit that per- sons who have experienced trauma may have disturbed emotional processing and therefore exhibit an excess of negative responses to otherwise neutral cues. The role of this mechanism in traumatized children has yet to be fully investigated. This study examined the relationship of var- ied clinical characteristics and theoretically relevant mod- erating variables to increased trauma related responding on a non-idiographic sentence completion task. One hundred and eighty-nine children (ages 6–17) residing at a resi- dential home between 1996 and 2011 who had experienced physical, emotional and/or sexual abuse were administered a sentence completion task and the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children (TSCC) shortly after their admis- sion. Three independent raters determined whether sen- tence completion responses were trauma related (TRR), non-trauma related, or ambiguous. Trauma related responses were then reviewed for either avoidant/denial style responding or loss related responding. The TSCC posttraumatic stress subscale (PTS) was the only subscale that was uniquely related to TRR. A significant interaction between abuse type and PTS was found with sexual abuse moderating the effect of PTS on TRR. Additionally, age at assessment was positively correlated with both TRR and loss related responding. Time since removal from home was negatively correlated with TRR. Gender differences were found for TRR and loss related responding. These findings highlight the empirical relevance of the sentence completion task in clinical research. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for research, assessment, and intervention. Keywords Trauma Á Children Á Anxiety Á Posttraumatic stress disorder Á Projective Á Sexual abuse Introduction Sentence completion tasks are widely used to assess psy- chopathology in clinical settings (Holaday et al. 2000). Among children and adults, sentence completion tasks allow for a therapeutic expression of trauma-related emo- tions or cognitions, or as a tool to assess psychopathology and trauma impact. Theories regarding cognitive process- ing following trauma highlight the over-attribution of standardized stimuli as both threatening and aversive (Kimble et al. 2002). This theory of information processing posits that persons who have experienced a trauma may have disturbances in emotional processing and therefore exhibit an excess of negative responses to neutral cues (Frewen and Lanius 2010). Studies have demonstrated this in persons with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as they respond to non-idiographic stimuli such as pictures, B. B. Kugler (&) Á J. F. McGuire Á E. A. Storch Department of Psychology, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620, USA e-mail: bbs@mail.usf.edu B. B. Kugler Á L. B. Kaercher Á S. Nagy Á T. V. Truax Á J. F. McGuire Á E. A. Storch Department of Pediatrics, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620, USA M. Bloom The Children’s Home, Inc, Tampa, FL 33615, USA K. M. Kugler Private Practice, Tampa, FL 33606, USA E. A. Storch Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620, USA 123 J Child Fam Stud (2013) 22:244–252 DOI 10.1007/s10826-012-9574-4