title: [How traumatized are the children of World War II? The relationship of age during flight and forced displacement and current posttraumatic stress symptoms].
abstract: Traumatic events experienced in childhood can be reactivated in older age. The present study investigates the relation of age during flight and forced displacement within World War II (WWII; 2-7 years, 8-13 years, 14-20 years) and the current occurrence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Traumatic events and current posttraumatic stress symptoms were assessed by the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire and the Impact of Event Scale-revised. Mean age of participants (N=169) was 73.76 years (SD=4.18). The eldest group reported most war-related traumatic events. In each age group a one-week-prevalence for a full PTSD of 10-11% was found. The prevalence for both full and subthreshold PTSD was higher for the age group 14-20 years (60.5%) compared to the younger age groups (33-35%). People, who experienced WWII as adolescents, show a dose-response-effect indicated by a higher prevalence for subthreshold PTSD.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Psychologie, Lehrstuhl für Gesundheit und Prävention, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Universität, Greifswald, Germany. carolin.wendt@uni-greifswald.de
authors.forename: Carolin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wendt
authors.forename: Simone
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Freitag
authors.forename: Silke
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schmidt
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D047789:World War II; D055815:Young Adult