title: Explosive anger in postconflict Timor Leste: interaction of socio-economic disadvantage and past human rights-related trauma.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Countries emerging from major conflict commonly experience recurrent periods of communal instability. A psychosocial theory, Adaptation and Development after Persecution and Trauma (ADAPT), suggests that experiences of past human rights abuses interact with socio-economic disadvantage in the postconflict period to generate or maintain explosive forms of anger. Previous research has supported a link between trauma exposure and anger but the role of ongoing socio-economic disadvantage requires further clarification.
  
  
  METHODS
  The present study examined a structural equation model based on cross-sectional epidemiological data (n = 1245) collected in post-conflict Timor Leste in 2004. The model included four trauma dimensions derived from a prior factor analysis; a latent variable of post-conflict distress symptoms (derived from measures of PTSD and depression/anxiety); an index of socio-economic distress; and an indigenously-based measure of explosive anger.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The final model yielded a good fit (chi-square = 26.59 df = 20 p = 0.15 CFI = 0.99; TLI = 0.99; RMSEA = 0.016). Postconflict distress symptoms mediated the associations of trauma dimensions and socio-economic disadvantage with anger. Trauma dimensions associated with human rights violations and witnessing murder were partly mediated by ongoing socio-economic disadvantage in the path to postconflict distress and anger.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Longitudinal studies will be needed to confirm the chronological sequencing of these relationships.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The study offers empirical support for a link between past trauma related to human rights violations and ongoing socio-economic disadvantage in the path to distress and anger.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Population Mental Health Research, Sydney South West Area Health Service, Sydney, Australia.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Brooks
authors.forename: Derrick
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Silove
authors.forename: Zachary
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Steel
authors.forename: Catherine Bateman
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Steel
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rees
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000786:Anger; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003130:Combat Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004522:Educational Status; D004651:Employment / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D045809:Human Rights Abuses / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008960:Models, Psychological; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D049648:Timor-Leste / Q000453:epidemiology; D014857:Warfare; D055815:Young Adult