Posttraumatic stress symptoms in Croatian children exposed to war: A prospective study

Abstract

This study examined symptoms of posttraumatic stress in 252 school-aged children from Osijek, Croatia, which was subjected to massive military attacks from Yugoslavian forces. The children's symptoms were assessed in 1994 while the war was still going on and 30 months later when the war was over. In addition to changes in posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms over time, the study examined the predictive power of (a) different types and number of war traumata, (b) loss of social community, (c) the children's demographic characteristics (age and gender), (d) types of coping strategies and locus of control, and (e) the perceived availability of different kinds of social support. Although symptoms of posttraumatic stress declined over time, 10% of the children reported a severe level of symptomatology 30 months after the war. The results supported the hypothesized predictive power of all investigated factors for predicting short- and long-term posttraumatic stress reactions.

Ten years after the genocide: Trauma confrontation and posttraumatic stress in Rwandan adolescents

“…This result is in line with previous findings (Almqvist & BrandellForsberg, 1997;Koenen et al, 2003;Kuterovac-Jagodic, 2003;Schauer et al, 2003;Smith et al, 2002;Thabet & Vostanis, 1999), which have consistently demonstrated a significant relationship between exposure and posttraumatic stress reactions. Witnessing of the murder of mother or father and the belief that the youth themselves would die were the two traumatic events most strongly related to posttraumatic stress symptoms.…”

“…An additional reason for the higher PTSD rate in older youth could be differences in trauma exposure. Consistently with the studies of Kuterovac-Jagodic (2003) and Thabet and Vostanis (1999), the present investigation revealed a significant, positive correlation between the number of experienced traumas and age. It could also be possible that a recall failure in younger respondents' reports led to an underestimation of the rate of both traumatic experiences and PTSD.…”

“…Several studies have reported a relationship between the number of traumatic experiences and symptoms (Almqvist & Brandell-Forsberg, 1997;Koenen, Stellman, Stellman & Sommer, 2003;Kuterovac-Jagodic, 2003;Schauer et al, 2003;Smith et al, 2002;Thabet & Vostanis, 1999). There is emerging evidence that perceived direct life threat (e.g., Smith et al, 2002) and number of previous traumatic experiences Schauer et al, 2003) are especially important for the development of posttraumatic stress reactions.…”

Applying the ADAPT Psychosocial Model to War-Affected Children and Adolescents

“…To escape the dangers of war, children and their families may leave their homes, either becoming internally displaced within their own countries or by moving to other, safer countries (e.g., see Adam & van Essen, 2004;Gupta & Zimmer, 2008;Kuterovac-Jagodic, 2003;Robinson, 2013;Sack et al, 1999). However, relocation poses its own dangers, including starvation, assault, and exposure to further violence.…”

“…However, several other maladaptive responses are potentially linked with safety violations. Psychosomatic complaints (McFarlane et al, 2011;Paardekooper et al, 1999;Sezibera et al, 2009), guilt (Goldstein et al, 1997;McFarlane et al, 2011), neuroticism (Punamäki et al, 2001), underreporting of post-traumatic symptoms due to fear of stigma (Anstiss & Ziaian, 2010;Colucci, Minas, Szwarc, Paxton, & Guerra, 2012;Servan-Schreiber et al, 1998;Thabet & Vostanis, 2000), and developing an external locus of control (Kuterovac-Jagodic, 2003) are also described in groups of children following wartrauma. In total, these maladaptive responses likely contribute to adjustment difficulties for children and adolescents as they seek to begin new lives following war.…”