title: [Post-traumatic stress reaction in a sample of bank employees victims of robbery in the workplace: the role of pre-trauma and peri-trauma factors].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Robberies are traumatizing events for workers. Consequently, a number of health problems can arise. In the short term, a common reaction is post-traumatic stress (including intrusion, avoidance, and hyperarousal symptoms).
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of the present study was to identify, among pre-trauma factors (personal characteristics: gender, age, educational level, and prior exposure to robberies) and peri-trauma factors (kind of weapon, duration of the event, number of robbers, and numbers of colleagues and clients involved), those that were most likely to cause post-traumatic symptoms in a sample of bank employees who were victims of a robbery.
  
  
  METHODS
  One-hundred-seventy-two employees at two banks in northwest Italy were involved in the research. A month after a robbery, the employees completed a self-report questionnaire including the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) by Weiss and Marmar (39).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Analyses found one pre-trauma factor (prior exposure to robbery/ies, and one peri-trauma factor, number of robbers) as significant predictors of intrusion. Two peri-trauma factors (number of robbers and duration of robbery) were identified as predictors of avoidance. Finally, one pre-trauma factor (prior exposure to robbery/ies) and two peri-trauma factors (number of robbers and number of colleagues involved in the robbery) were found to be predictors of hyperarousal.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results showed that several peri-trauma factors can increase the risk of workers developing post-traumatic stress reaction and suggest that these factors should be kept in mind when planning intervention programmes aimed at preventing and contrasting psychological consequences of robbery.
authors: Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università degli Studi di Torino. daniela.converso@unito.it.
authors: Daniela
authors: D
authors: Converso
authors: Sara
authors: S
authors: Viotti
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D013800:Theft; D017132:Workplace