Symptom severity, personal and social variables after armed robbery.
To investigate the relative importance of personal and social variables on post-trauma symptom recovery.



Prospective survey of armed robbery victims.



Fifty-one consecutive armed robbery victims were assessed immediately and at 1 month post-raid for post-traumatic stress. One month post-raid, crisis support, causal attribution and coping were also measured. Thirty-one of the sample were assessed for symptoms 6 months after the raid.



Both the main and follow-up samples had high levels of post-traumatic stress symptoms immediately after the raid which reduced significantly 1 month later and, for the follow-up subsample, further still 6 months later. Higher levels of symptoms at 1 month and poor crisis support were associated with higher levels of symptoms at follow-up.



Purposeful coping, symptom severity and social support effect post-trauma recovery.
Richards
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School of Nursing Midwifery and Health Visiting, University of Manchester, UK.
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D005389:Firearms; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012944:Social Support; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology*; D014754:Violence / Q000523:psychology*