Abstract

Background

Consequences of war-related traumatisation have mostly been investigated in military and predominant male populations, while research on female civilian victims of war has been neglected. Furthermore, research of post-war posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in women has rarely included early-life trauma in their prediction models, so the contribution of trauma in childhood and early youth is still unexplored.

Objective

To examine the relationship of early-life trauma, war-related trauma, personality traits, and symptoms of posttraumatic stress among female civilian victims of the recent war in Croatia.

Method

The cross-sectional study included 394 participants, 293 war-traumatised adult women civilians, and 101 women without war-related trauma. Participants were recruited using the snowball sampling method. The applied instruments included the Clinician-Administrated PTSD Scale (CAPS), the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised (NEO-PI-R), the War Stressors Assessment Questionnaire (WSAQ), and the Early Trauma Inventory Self Report-Short Form (ETISR-SF). A hierarchical multiple regression analysis was performed to assess the prediction model of PTSD symptom severity measured by CAPS score for current PTSD.

Results

The prevalence of current PTSD (CAPS cut-off score=65) in this cohort was 20.7%. The regression model that included age, early-life trauma, war-related trauma, neuroticism, and extraversion as statistically significant predictors explained 45.8% of variance in PTSD symptoms.

Conclusions

Older age, exposure to early-life trauma, exposure to war-related traumatic events, high neuroticism, and low extraversion are independent factors associated with higher level of PTSD symptoms among women civilian victims of war.

Details

Title
Relationship of early-life trauma, war-related trauma, personality traits, and PTSD symptom severity: a retrospective study on female civilian victims of war
Author
Stevanović, Aleksandra 1 ; Frančišković, Tanja 1 ; Vermetten, Eric 2 

 Department of Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Rijeka, Rijeka, Croatia 
 Military Mental Health Research, Department of Defence, Utrecht, The Netherlands; Department of Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands; Arq Psychotrauma Research Group, Diemen, The Netherlands 
Publication year
2016
Publication date
Dec 2016
Publisher
Taylor & Francis Ltd.
e-ISSN
20008066
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2301967304
Copyright
© 2016 Aleksandra Stevanović et al. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.