Posttraumatic stress symptom profiles of aid workers: Identifying risk and protective factors.

Abstract

Objective: Researchers have documented elevated rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in aid workers. Yet, few have investigated the heterogeneity of PTSD presentations in this population. This study examined clinically relevant patterns of PTSD symptomatology in aid workers and examined whether factors such as the degree of trauma exposure (e.g., morally injurious events), social support, and sociodemographic and work characteristics predict symptom profiles. Method: Participants were 243 aid workers who had completed 8.2 assignments on average. They completed measures of trauma exposure, PTSD symptoms, and various types of social support. Latent profile analysis was used to identify PTSD symptom profiles using PCL-5 subscale scores. Next, profiles were compared on 15 potential risk and protective factors. Results: Five profiles were identified: a no PTSD profile (49.4%), a low subclinical PTSD profile (21.8%), a dysphoric subclinical PTSD profile (5.8%), an intermediate clinical PTSD profile (14.8%), and a severe clinical PTSD profile (8.2%). Profiles differed in terms of witnessed traumatic events, morally injurious exposure, social support adequacy, age, number of assignments, types of assignments, and organizational support. Conclusions: This study is the first to identify distinct patterns of PTSD symptomatology in aid workers and to investigate novel psychological risk factors such as potentially morally injurious events. Overall, these findings provide further insight into the risk and protective factors for the psychological well-being of aid workers as well as avenues for improving the psychological assessment and support.