The effects of trauma and non-trauma literature on relieving PTSD of Chinese undergraduates—a randomized controlled trial

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-trauma literature, non-trauma literature, and a control condition-on PTSD symptoms among 105 Chinese university students. Over an 8-week period, the trauma literature group showed the largest reduction in PTSD symptoms (<i>p</i> < 0.001), followed by the non-trauma literature group (<i>p</i> < 0.001), with minimal change in the control group (<i>p</i> < 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.