Frequency of traumatic events, physical and psychological health among Maori
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Date
2005
DOI
Open Access Location
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
New Zealand Psychological Society
Rights
Abstract
We examined the lifetime prevalence of 12 traumatic experiences (combat, child sex abuse, sexual abuse as an adult, family violence, other physical assault, theft by force, vehicle accident, other accident, natural disaster, disaster precautions, traumatic death (secondary trauma) and the links between these experiences and physical and mental health, via a cross sectional survey of 502 community dwelling New Zealand Maori adults. We found that the overall frequency with which such events occur in this group to be relatively high. Males were significantly more likely than females to report experience of combat, physical assault, theft by force, vehicle accident and other forms of accident. Females were significantly more likely to report sexual abuse as a child or adult, violence at the hands of a family member, and a traumatic death of a loved one. Younger respondents and those living in urban areas also reported more traumatic experiences of various sorts. There were some significant linkages between traumatic experiences and mental health (specifically PTSD, and the well-being scale of the MHI) but the size of the effects were small. We argue, that despite methodological limitations, these data are instructive about the frequency and impact of traumatic events among this group.
Description
Keywords
POSTTRAUMATIC-STRESS-DISORDER, GENERAL-POPULATION, LIFE EVENTS, MISSISSIPPI SCALE, SOCIAL SUPPORT, MENTAL-HEALTH, NEW-ZEALAND, SAMPLE, PTSD, PREVALENCE
Citation
NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY, 2005, 34 (1), pp. 20 - 27 (8)