Previous work on PTSD concentrates on the nature of the focal event and conditions at the time the trauma occurs. This study instead asks, "Does cumulative adversity add to the risk that a traumatic event will result in PTSD?" We find dramatically higher rates of PTSD among African American youths in Miami community sample, compared with the Cubans, non-Cuban Hispanics, and non-Hispanic Whites. Our data show that differences in the rates of PTSD are only partially attributable to simple differences in the occurrence of the focal events. Additional risk for this disorder appears to be embedded in the biographical contexts of these young adults' lives.
We use an event history approach to examine the impact of five types of prior adversities on the risk for PTSD onset in any given two-year period. Data on the experience of 41 potentially traumatic events are grouped as: major life events that may be traumatic but not necessarily violent; life traumas that typically involve violence or force; witnessed violence; traumatic news; and death events (unexpected deaths of relatives or friends). The finding of an extremely strong association between the occurrence of one or more of these adversities in the same two-year period as the onset of PTSD is not interesting because the experience of such an event is part of the definition of the syndrome. But we find that three of these five types of adversity in prior periods increase the risk for PTSD onset in a later period independent of the focal event.
Learning Objectives: Those attending will learn how the elevated rate of posttraumatic stress disorder found among young African-Americans is attributable not only to their level of exposure to the syndrome's focal events, but also to the degree that their biographies are embedded in a matrix of social adversity.
Keywords: Adolescents, Psychiatric Epidemiology
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.