Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Psychiatric Co-morbidity among Syrian Refugees of Different Ages: the Role of Trauma Centrality

Document Type

Article

Source of Publication

Psychiatric Quarterly

Publication Date

12-1-2018

Abstract

© 2018, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature. It has been documented that trauma centrality is associated with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and psychiatric co-morbidity among Syrian refugees. Whether age would influence the levels of the above constructs and the association between trauma centrality and distress outcomes is unclear. This study compared age differences in 1) the levels of trauma centrality, posttraumatic stress disorder and psychiatric co-morbidity, and 2) models depicting the association between trauma centrality and distress outcomes among Syrian refugees. One thousand one hundred and ninety-seven refugees completed the Centrality of Event Scale, Harvard Trauma Questionnaire and General Health Questionnaire-28. Age groups were divided into young, middle-aged adults and adults of 45 or above. No significant group differences were found in the proportion of refugees meeting the diagnostic criteria for PTSD. Controlling for demographic variables, all subscales of trauma centrality and psychiatric co-morbidity were significantly different between groups. Young adults reported significantly less trauma centrality and psychiatric co-morbidity than the other groups. Multiple-indicator multiple-cause modelling showed that trauma centrality was significantly correlated with PTSD and psychiatric co-morbidity. Multi-group analysis showed the model for the young adult group to be significantly different from the middle-aged group model. To conclude, age did not seem to influence the severity of PTSD among Syrian refugees. The war had a less severe impact on young adults’ sense of self and other psychological problems than those who were older. The way in which young and middle-aged adults responded to distress varied depending on environment and personal characteristics.

ISSN

0033-2720

Publisher

Springer New York LLC

Volume

89

Issue

4

First Page

909

Last Page

921

Disciplines

Medicine and Health Sciences

Keywords

Age differences, PTSD, Syrian refugees, Trauma centrality

Scopus ID

85049569796

Indexed in Scopus

yes

Open Access

yes

Open Access Type

Green: A manuscript of this publication is openly available in a repository

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