title: Childhood adversities and traumata in Lebanon: a national study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The goal of this paper is to map the total occurrence and evaluate the risk of co-occurrence of childhood adversities (CA) and a wide variety of childhood traumatic events (including war) in a national sample.
  
  
  METHODS
  The nationally representative sample included 2,857 respondents and the instrument used was the Composite International Diagnostic Interview which screened for all CAs and traumatic events.
  
  
  RESULTS
  27.9% experienced CAs; the most common were parental death and parental mental/substance use disorder. 70.6% experienced a war-related traumatic event during their lifetime, and around half of them (38.1%) experienced it below the age of 18 years. 51.3% of the subjects experienced a traumatic event not related to war during their lifetime, and 19.2% experienced it before the age of 18 years. Sexual abuse, being a refugee during war, and experiencing a natural disaster were associated with female gender. Having any CA was associated with active war exposure (OR: 4.2, CI: 2.0-8.6); war-related direct personal trauma (OR: 3.9, CI: 1.5-10.0); war-related trauma to others (OR: 2.4, CI: 1.3-4.4); non-war direct personal trauma (OR: 3.8, CI: 2.0-7.4); and any non-war childhood traumatic event (OR: 1.9, CI: 1.1-3.1).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Childhood is awash with adversities and traumatic events that co-occur and should be measured simultaneously; otherwise, the effects of a subset of traumata or adversities could be wrongly thought to be the contributor to negative outcomes under study.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Development, Research, Advocacy & Applied Care (IDRAAC), Beirut, Lebanon.
authors.forename: Lynn
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Itani
authors.affiliation: Institute for Development, Research, Advocacy & Applied Care (IDRAAC), Beirut, Lebanon ; Dept. of Psychiatry & Clinical Psychology, St. George Hospital University Medical Center, Balamand University, Faculty of Medicine, Beirut, Lebanon.
authors.forename: Youmna C
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Haddad
authors.affiliation: Institute for Development, Research, Advocacy & Applied Care (IDRAAC), Beirut, Lebanon ; Dept. of Psychiatry & Clinical Psychology, St. George Hospital University Medical Center, Balamand University, Faculty of Medicine, Beirut, Lebanon.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fayyad
authors.affiliation: Institute for Development, Research, Advocacy & Applied Care (IDRAAC), Beirut, Lebanon ; Dept. of Psychiatry & Clinical Psychology, St. George Hospital University Medical Center, Balamand University, Faculty of Medicine, Beirut, Lebanon.
authors.forename: Aimee
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Karam
authors.affiliation: Institute for Development, Research, Advocacy & Applied Care (IDRAAC), Beirut, Lebanon ; Dept. of Psychiatry & Clinical Psychology, St. George Hospital University Medical Center, Balamand University, Faculty of Medicine, Beirut, Lebanon.
authors.forename: Elie
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Karam
keywords: Adolescence; Childhood; Childhood adversities; Lebanon; Traumatic events; War trauma.