title: Appetitive aggression as a resilience factor against trauma disorders: appetitive aggression and PTSD in German World War II veterans.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Repeated exposure to traumatic stressors such as combat results in chronic symptoms of PTSD. However, previous findings suggest that former soldiers who report combat-related aggression to be appetitive are more resilient to develop PTSD. Appetitive Aggression should therefore prevent widespread mental suffering in perpetrators of severe atrocities even after decades.
  
  
  RESULTS
  To test the long-term relationship between trauma-related illness and attraction to aggression, we surveyed a sample of 51 German male World-War II veterans (age: M = 86.7, SD = 2.8). War-related appetitive aggression was assessed with the Appetitive Aggression Scale (AAS). Current- and lifetime PTSD symptoms were assessed with the PSS-I. In a linear regression analysis accounting for 31% of the variance we found that veterans that score higher on the AAS show lower PSS-I symptom severity scores across their whole post-war lifetime (β = - .31, p = .014). The effect size and power were sufficient (f(2) = 0.51, (1-β) = .99). The same was true for current PTSD (β = - .27, p = .030).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Appetitive Aggression appears to be a resilience factor for negative long-term effects of combat experiences in perpetrators of violence. This result has practical relevance for preventing trauma-related mental suffering in Peace Corps and for designing adequate homecoming reception for veterans.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany. roland.weierstall@uni-konstanz.de
authors.forename: Roland
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Weierstall
authors.forename: Sina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Huth
authors.forename: Jasmin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Knecht
authors.forename: Corina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nandi
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Elbert
mesh_terms: D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology*; D003130:Combat Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D055500:Resilience, Psychological; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000523:psychology*; D059020:Suicidal Ideation; D014728:Veterans / Q000523:psychology*; D014754:Violence / Q000523:psychology; D047789:World War II