title: The prevalence of traumatic events in young Japanese women.
abstract: In an effort to address important cross-cultural considerations in the study of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the present study is the first to assess the prevalence of a variety of potentially traumatic events among young Japanese women across life phases. Overall, our results proved similar to those reported in previous Western studies: Traumatic events were quite common among our participants (80.3%; n = 883). This finding is not surprising given that many of them lived through the 1995 Kobe earthquake. Yet our study found that even when "natural disaster" was excluded, the rate remained 53.1%. Comparing four life phases, we found the most consistent differences between preschool and other life phases. The prevalence of potentially traumatic events and the percentage of most distressing events that participants reported were significantly lower in the preschool phase.
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Sciences, Kobe College, Nishinomiya, Hyogo, Japan. mizuta@mail.kobe-c.ac.jp
authors.forename: Ichiro
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Mizuta
authors.forename: Teruko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ikuno
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shimai
authors.forename: Hideto
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hirotsune
authors.forename: Masayuki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ogasawara
authors.forename: Asao
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ogawa
authors.forename: Eiko
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Honaga
authors.forename: Yoichi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Inoue
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004190:Disasters; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000208:ethnology; D008016:Life Change Events; D015995:Prevalence; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000208:ethnology*; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000523:psychology*