Department of Political Science, University College London, UK.
The Spitzer Department of Social Work, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel.
J Affect Disord. 2019 Mar 1;246:201-208. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2018.12.024. Epub 2018 Dec 19.
Previous research has well documented the negative effect of exposure to war trauma on refugees' mental health. However, few prior investigations have examined the nature of the traumatic events and the potential mechanisms involved.
This study explored the mediating role of interpersonal sensitivity in the relationship between exposure to different types of war traumas and psychological stress in a community sample of 300 Darfuri asylum seekers living in Israel.
A principal component analysis on a set of 17 traumatic experiences identified four trauma dimensions: War-exposure, Life-threat, Torture-Assault and Sexual-violence. Hierarchical regressions showed that only degree of exposure to Life-threat trauma was a significant predictor of PTSD and depressive symptom severity. Mediation analyses further revealed that interpersonal sensitivity partially mediated the association between exposure to life threat and PTSD symptoms and fully mediated the relation between exposure to life threat and depressive symptoms.
The current study was limited by the use of self-report measures and cross-sectional design.
Our findings stress the importance of taking into account the nature of war events and the presence of negative beliefs about oneself within interpersonal interactions when studying mental health outcomes in traumatized refugees. Implications for theory, clinical practice and future research are discussed.
先前的研究充分记录了暴露于战争创伤对难民心理健康的负面影响。然而，先前的调查很少研究创伤事件的性质和涉及的潜在机制。
本研究在居住在以色列的 300 名达尔富尔寻求庇护者的社区样本中，探讨了不同类型的战争创伤暴露与心理压力之间的中介作用，人际敏感性。
对一组 17 种创伤经历的主成分分析确定了四个创伤维度：战争暴露、生命威胁、酷刑袭击和性暴力。层次回归显示，只有生命威胁创伤的暴露程度是 PTSD 和抑郁症状严重程度的显著预测因子。中介分析进一步表明，人际敏感性部分中介了生命威胁暴露与 PTSD 症状之间的关系，完全中介了生命威胁暴露与抑郁症状之间的关系。
目前的研究受到使用自我报告措施和横断面设计的限制。
我们的研究结果强调了在研究创伤后难民的心理健康结果时，考虑战争事件的性质和对自己在人际互动中的负面信念的重要性。讨论了对理论、临床实践和未来研究的影响。
