Juvenile male rape victims: is the level of post-traumatic stress related to personality and parenting?
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to assess the level of post-traumatic stress in juvenile male rape victims and to test for its relationships with perceived parental rearing and personality dimensions.


METHODS
Fifteen subjects (mean age of 16 years) were recruited from a correctional camp for juvenile criminals in Arkhangelsk, Russia. They were investigated by means of the "Revised Impact of Event Scale," the "Child Self-Report Post-Traumatic Stress Reaction Index," the "Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale," the "EMBU" (perceived parental rearing) and the "Temperament and Character Inventory" (TCI).


RESULTS
The level of post-traumatic stress, in most cases moderate to high, correlated with the temperament dimensions of harm avoidance and reward dependence. As concerns parental rearing, the total level of post-traumatic stress reaction was negatively correlated with paternal emotional warmth and positively with paternal rejection.


CONCLUSIONS
The experience of post-traumatic stress is influenced by temperamental characteristics as well as by perceived parental rearing practices. Assumingly, these factors also play a role in becoming a rape victim, which deserves further investigation.
Department of Psychiatry & WHO Collaborating Centre, Umeå, Sweden.
V V
VV
Ruchkin
M
M
Eisemann
B
B
Hägglöf
D000293:Adolescent; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology*; D010551:Personality; D010555:Personality Inventory; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011902:Rape / Q000523:psychology*; D012426:Russia; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*