{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,30]],"date-time":"2026-10-30T01:53:25Z","timestamp":1793325205584,"version":"4.5.0"},"reference-count":69,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,28]],"date-time":"2025-11-28T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1764288000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Psychol."],"abstract":"<jats:p>\n                    Traditional psychological interventions for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) face limitations in university settings due to resource constraints, stigma, and low student engagement. This randomized controlled trial explored the effectiveness of reading-based interventions\u2014trauma literature, non-trauma literature, and a control condition\u2014on PTSD symptoms among 105 Chinese university students. Over an 8-week period, the trauma literature group showed the largest reduction in PTSD symptoms (\n                    <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                    &amp;lt; 0.001), followed by the non-trauma literature group (\n                    <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                    &amp;lt; 0.001), with minimal change in the control group (\n                    <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                    &amp;lt; 0.01). Path analysis revealed that reading self-efficacy significantly predicted emotional empathy, which in turn predicted lower PTSD symptoms, indicating a partial mediating effect. These results suggest that exposure to traumatic reading could reduce PTSD symptoms, and structured reading, especially trauma narratives, can serve as a low-cost, scalable intervention to reduce PTSD symptoms and improve emotion regulation through enhanced reading efficacy and empathy. This study offers new evidence supporting bibliotherapy as a feasible and effective alternative for psychological support in higher education.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2025.1625041","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,28]],"date-time":"2025-11-28T13:05:36Z","timestamp":1764335136000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["The effects of trauma and non-trauma literature on relieving PTSD of Chinese undergraduates\u2014a randomized controlled trial"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"16","author":[{"given":"Ruikai","family":"Yuan","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mengjie","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,28]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","article-title":"The effect of reading narratives: How does perspective taking influence prosocial behavior?","author":"Albrecht","year":"2016"},{"key":"ref1107","year":"2013"},{"key":"ref2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"53","DOI":"10.1016\/j.lindif.2018.06.009","article-title":"Can reading fluency and self-efficacy of reading fluency be enhanced with an intervention targeting the sources of self-efficacy?","volume":"67","author":"Aro","year":"2018","journal-title":"Learn. 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