Differential roles of childhood adversities and stressful war experiences in the development of mental health symptoms in post-war adolescents in northern Uganda

BMC Psychiatry

Ilse Derluyn³  Eric Broekaert¹  Seggane Musisi²  Maarten De Schryver⁵  James Okello⁴ 

[1] Department of Orthopedagogics, Ghent University, H. Dunantlaan 2, Ghent, 9000, Belgium;Department of Psychiatry, Makerere University College of Health Sciences, Kampala, Uganda;Department of Social Welfare Studies & Centre for Children in Vulnerable Situations, Ghent University, H. Dunantlaan 2, Ghent, 9000, Belgium;Department of Psychiatry, Gulu University, Gulu, Uganda;Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, H. Dunantlaan 2, Ghent, 9000, Belgium

关键词: Childhood adversity;    Adolescents;    Stressful war experiences;    Anxiety;    Depression;    Posttraumatic stress disorder;   

Others  :  1123350
DOI  :  10.1186/s12888-014-0260-5

 received in 2014-01-04, accepted in 2014-09-04,  发布年份 2014

【 摘 要 】

Background

Previous studies have shown a relationship between stressful war experiences and mental health symptoms in children and adolescents. To date, no comprehensive studies on the role of childhood adversities have been conducted with war-exposed adolescents living in post-war, low-resource settings in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Methods

A cross-sectional study of 551 school-going adolescents aged 13-21 years old was undertaken four years post-war in northern Uganda. Participants completed self-administered questionnaires assessing demographics, stressful war experiences, childhood adversities, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety symptoms.

Results

Our analyses revealed a main effect of gender on all mental health outcomes except avoidance symptoms, with girls reporting higher scores than boys. Stressful war experiences were associated with all mental health symptoms, after adjusting for potential confounders. Childhood adversity was independently associated with depression symptoms but not PTSD, anxiety, and PTSD cluster symptoms. However, in situations of high childhood adversity, our analyses showed that stressful war experiences were less associated with vulnerability to avoidance symptoms than in situations of low childhood adversity.

Conclusions

Both stressful war experiences and childhood adversities are risk factors for mental health symptoms among war-affected adolescents. Adolescents with histories of high childhood adversities may be less likely to develop avoidance symptoms in situations of high stressful war experiences. Further exploration of the differential roles of childhood adversities and stressful war experiences is needed.

【 授权许可】

   
2014 Okello et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

Figure 1.

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