Do personality traits predict post-traumatic stress?: a prospective study in civilians experiencing air attacks

Background. Previous studies have suggested an association between personality traits and post-traumatic stress. These studies either focused exclusively on military veterans or assessed personality traits after the traumatic event. This study investigates to what extent personality traits as assess...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychological medicine 2005-05, Vol.35 (5), p.659-663
Main Authors: KNEŽEVIĆ, GORAN, OPAČIĆ, GORAN, SAVIĆ, DANKA, PRIEBE, STEFAN
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Aircraft
Biological and medical sciences
Civilians
Humans
Male
Medical sciences
Personality
Personality Disorders - diagnosis
Personality Disorders - epidemiology
Personality Inventory
Personality traits
Post traumatic stress disorder
Posttraumatic stress disorder
Predictors
Prospective Studies
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Severity of Illness Index
Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - diagnosis
Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - epidemiology
Students
Universities
Veterans - psychology
Veterans - statistics & numerical data
Wars
Yugoslavia
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Summary:Background. Previous studies have suggested an association between personality traits and post-traumatic stress. These studies either focused exclusively on military veterans or assessed personality traits after the traumatic event. This study investigates to what extent personality traits as assessed before the traumatic experience predict post-traumatic stress in civilians experiencing air attacks at the end of the exposure to stressful events and 1 year later. Method. The revised version of the NEO Personality Inventory was administered to 70 students in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. In 1999, 1 or 2 years after the assessment, all students were exposed to air attacks for 11 weeks. At the end of the attacks and 1 year later post-traumatic stress was measured on the Impact of Event Scale. Results. Pre-trauma personality predicted 13% of the variance of intrusion scores 1 year after the attacks. There was no significant correlation between personality traits and subsequent avoidance scores at any point of time. Conclusions. Personality traits that are assessed before a traumatic event can, to a limited extent, predict intrusive symptoms in a non-clinical sample of civilians. Pre-trauma assessments of personality might be less strongly associated with post-traumatic stress than personality traits obtained after the traumatic event.
ISSN:0033-2917
1469-8978
DOI:10.1017/S0033291704004131