The present study aimed to assess the mediational effects of the traumatic emotions (fear/anxiety, anger, sense of isolation, helplessness, humiliation, betrayal, disgust, shame and guilt) in the relationship between PTSD and narrative coherence within a group of 84 allegations of children (M = 9 years; SD = 3.2; range: 4-17), who were victims of sexual abuse. Narrative coherence was analysed in terms of level of orientation, sequence of the events and level of evaluation (Miragoli et al., 2017; O’Kearney et al., 2007; Peterson & McCabe, 1983). Linguistic Inquiry Word Count (LIWC; Pennebaker, Francis, & Booth, 2001) was employed to count emotional linguistic markers. Results confirmed that PTSD played an important role in establishing narrative coherence and illustrated that some specific traumatic emotions (shame and disgust) had a mediational effects (partial or total) in the rela-tionship between PTSD and narrative coherence.
Keywords: Narrative coherence, child sexual abuse, PTSD, traumatic emotions, child testi-mony.