engleski

Age and gender as determinants of children's posttraumatic and other stress reactions

The aim of the study was to examine the effects of age and gender on the intensity of posttraumatic and stress reactions in children who experienced high level of traumatization during the recent war in Croatia. The sample consisted of 614 elemetary school children from grades 1 to 8 who lived in war regions for prolonged period between 1991 to 1994 year, and who reported nine or more traumatic and /or stressfull war experiences. They were divided according to their age in two groups, i.e.: younger (7 to 10 years, N=271) and older children (11 to 14 years, N=343). There were 312 boys and 302 girls. The variables included in the study were: posttraumatic stress reactions, depressive reactions, anxiety reactions, psychosomatic reactions and general level of psychosocial adaptation. The results of 2 by 2 ANOVAs reveal that significant main effect for age and gender appeared for the majority of variables: posttraumatic stress reactions, anxiety reactions and psychosocial adaptations. For depressive reactions significant main effect was obtained only for age, and for psychosomatic symptoms only for gender. Also significant two way interactions were obtained for all variables except psychosomatic symptoms. It appeared that the most vulnerable were older girls.

war; children; PTSR; depression; anxiety; psychosomatic symptoms; psychosocial adaptation; age; gender

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