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Prevalence of traumatic events and PTSD symptoms among secondary school students in Baghdad

Al-Hadethe, Ashraf; Hunt, Nigel; Thomas, Shirley; Al-Qaysi, Abdulgaffar

Authors

Ashraf Al-Hadethe

Nigel Hunt

Abdulgaffar Al-Qaysi



Abstract

Background
People in Iraq have been more or less continually exposed to war for more than three decades. Studies with Iraqi participants report high prevalence rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and related problems.

Methods
The aim of this study is to measure the prevalence of traumatic events and to screen the prevalence of PTSD symptoms among Iraqi secondary school students. Four self-report scales were administered to 403 secondary school students, aged 16–19 (61% male and 31% female). These scales were Baghdad Trauma History Screen, the Scale of Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms (SPTSS), Social Support Scale, and Scale of Religious Coping.

Results
The results showed that 84% of participants experienced at least one traumatic event. Of these, 61% fully met the criteria for PTSD; 65% of the females and 58% of the males. PTSD symptoms were correlated with 20 positive religious coping but not with social support.

Conclusions
It’s clear that traumatic events were speared widely among the participants and the result showed that the vast majority of participants were exposed to different types of traumatic events. In addition, many of the participants have met full PTSD criteria and others had partial PTSD.

Citation

Al-Hadethe, A., Hunt, N., Thomas, S., & Al-Qaysi, A. (2014). Prevalence of traumatic events and PTSD symptoms among secondary school students in Baghdad. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 5(1), 1-5. https://doi.org/10.3402/ejpt.v5.23928

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Oct 17, 2014
Online Publication Date Nov 11, 2014
Publication Date Nov 11, 2014
Deposit Date Jun 29, 2018
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Electronic ISSN 2000-8066
Publisher Taylor & Francis Open
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 5
Issue 1
Article Number 23928
Pages 1-5
DOI https://doi.org/10.3402/ejpt.v5.23928
Public URL http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/ejpt.v5.23928
Publisher URL https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.3402/ejpt.v5.23928

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