[Differences in coping strategies in those who experienced the trauma of war or torture and the local population].
OBJECTIVE
To define the differences in coping strategies between the victims of torture and the local inhabitants with the experience of war.


METHODS
The subjects were divided in two groups. Each group consisted of 50 subjects. The first group included the subjects with the experience of torture, and the second group had the subjects who have survived the war but not torture. The Coping strategies were registered by the Coping Scale.


RESULTS
A significant decrease in socioeconomic status of torture victims after the war. On all the subscales of the Coping Scale, there is a statistically significant difference between the torture victims and the second group to the effect that the prior group has higher scores in all subscales as well as the higher overall score of adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies.


CONCLUSIONS
Higher mean score in coping strategies in significantly more frequent in torture survivors, than in local population with the experience of war, that confirms theoretical discussions about coping as a dynamical process that is in reciprocal relation between the individual and the environment.
Kucukalić
Abdulah
A
Psihijatrijska klinika KCU Sarajevo.
Bravo-Mehmedbasić
Alma
A
Popović
Sabina
S
Salcić-Dizdarević
Dubravka
D
Dizdarević
Tarik
T
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D017522:Bosnia and Herzegovina; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011594:Psychometrics; D012940:Social Problems; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000175:diagnosis; D014104:Torture / Q000523:psychology*; D014857:Warfare