Objective. To assess whether psychosocial support of the School Project of the Humanitarian Society (HS) "Prijateljice (Girlfriends)" had a positive eff ect on reducing posttraumatic consequences in Bosnia-Herzegovina primary and secondary school students, aft er the 1992-1995 war. Subjects and Methods. A stratifi ed sample of 336 students, aged 13.5±1.6 (10 to18) years, in primary and secondary schools, involved in psychosocial support, were compared with 72 randomly selected peers from the same schools, not involved in this project. Data were collected in December 2005 and in May 2006. Th e Children's Depression Inventory and the Child Post-Traumatic Stress Reaction Index were utilized. Statistical analysis involved McNemar's test, Students' t-test, Chi-square test and Pearson's correlation test. Results. According to DSM, the prevalence of PTSD and depression among students involved in the School Project, signifi cantly decreased from 46.1% to 13.4% and 25.6% to 1.8%, respectively (McNemar's test, P<0.001; P<0.001, respectively). In the control group the prevalence of PTSP and depression decreased from 30.5% to 23.6% and 22.2% to 11.1%, respectively, with no signifi cance (McNemar's test, p=0.332; p=0.077, signifi cantly). Girls had a signifi cantly higher prevalence of both PTSD and depression compared to the boys. Age, the number of traumatic episodes, and suicidal behavior correlated with the intensity of PTSD symptoms and depression symptoms. Conclusions. Psychosocial support within the School Project resulted in a significant reduction of PTSP and depression amongst the involved students compared to the controls. Schools and other institutions ought to envisage as many projects as possible to be implemented in school and out-of-school to assist young people to overcome more easily the consequences of the war in their development.

Aim: To assess the psychological health of war-traumatized school adolescents in two different geopolitical settings of postwar Bosnia and Herzegovina: Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina (FBH) and Republic Serbska (RS), 10 years after the Bosnia and Herzegovina 1992-1995 war in regard of ethnicity, gender and age. Method: The study was carried out in northeast part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in December 2005. We assessed 408 (267 girls) elementary and secondary school adolescents aged 13.5±1.7 years for war trauma, presence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and depression. We used Children's Posttraumatic Stress Reaction Index, and Children's Depression Inventory. Results: Frequency of trauma experiences in the sample was (mean±standard deviation=7.0±5.7) with no significant differences between two entities (RS and FBH). Bosniacs had the highest rate of trauma experiences (mean±standard deviation=7.7±6.4), Serbs had 6.5±4.7 and Croats had 4.2±3.2 (ANOVA F=5.497, P=0.004). In the whole sample, 177 (43.4%) of 408 adolescents met criteria for PTSD prevalence respecting the DSM-IV criteria with no significant differ between entities FBH and RS. In the sample, 102 (25%) of 408 adolescents met DSM-IV criteria for depression prevalence, depression prevalence was significantly more frequent amongst adolescents from RS 63 (29.3%) than amongst their peers in FBH 39 (20.2%) of 193 (Chi-Square=4.437, P =0.034). Conclusions: All students experienced war trauma and many had psychological consequences. Bosniacs had the highest rate of trauma experiences. The PTSD prevalence did not differ significantly between entities FBH and RS but the depression prevalence was significantly more frequent amongst adolescents from RS than amongst their peers in FBH.