Ten years after the genocide: trauma confrontation and posttraumatic stress in Rwandan adolescents.
A decade after the 1994 Rwandan genocide, we interviewed a total of 68 Rwandan orphans about their war experiences and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. The two samples comprised youth living either in a child-headed household (CHH) or in an orphanage. All had been exposed to extreme levels of violence and 41% had witnessed the murder of their own mother or father. Of the sample, 44% had PTSD. PTSD vulnerability was greater for youth who at the time of the study lived in CHH than those in an orphanage; it was also higher in those aged 8 to 13 during the outbreak of the genocide than those aged 3 to 7 at the time. Furthermore, a significant relationship was found between the number of traumatic experiences and subsequent stress responses.
Department of Psychology, Center for Psychiatry Reichenau, University of Konstanz, Germany.
Susanne
S
Schaal
Thomas
T
Elbert
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003710:Demography; D005260:Female; D005581:Foster Home Care / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006708:Homicide / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012432:Rwanda / Q000453:epidemiology; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires