Psychological well-being and ratings of psychiatric symptoms in bereaved Israeli adolescents: differential effect of war-versus accident-related bereavement.
Eight hundred seventy-one Israeli adolescents, 375 boys and 496 girls, mean age 16.7 +/- 1, participated in this study. Twenty-three of them lost relatives in war and 19 in road accidents. All participants were administered the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), the General Well-being Scale (GWB), the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) and the Perceived Social Support-Family/Friend (PSS-Fa and PSS-Fr) measures. War-bereaved adolescents showed significantly higher scores in psychological well-being (GWB) and significantly lower scores in reported psychiatric symptoms (BSI) than accident-bereaved adolescents. War-bereaved adolescents also had significantly better BSI and GWB scores than the general nonbereaved adolescent population. These results persisted after controlling for family socio-economic status, gender, and the degrees of closeness of the deceased relative. War-bereaved adolescents did not differ either from accident-bereaved adolescents or from the nonbereaved general adolescent population in social and family support systems (PSS-Fr, PSS-Fa) and did not experience different basic parental attitudes (PBI). Results are discussed in terms of the different meanings ascribed to death in battle versus death in a road accident.
Bachar
E
E
Department of Psychiatry, Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel.
Canetti
L
L
Bonne
O
O
Denour
A K
AK
Shalev
A Y
AY
D000059:Accidents; D000293:Adolescent; D001601:Bereavement; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D010555:Personality Inventory; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D012944:Social Support; D014857:Warfare