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The validity of posttraumatic stress disorder among vietnamese refugees
Author(s) -
Fawzi Mary Catherine Smith,
Pham Thang,
Lin Lien,
Nguyen Tho Viet,
Ngo Dung,
Murphy Elizabeth,
Mollica Richard F.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
journal of traumatic stress
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.259
H-Index - 134
eISSN - 1573-6598
pISSN - 0894-9867
DOI - 10.1002/jts.2490100109
Subject(s) - vietnamese , psychology , refugee , clinical psychology , arousal , psychiatry , population , posttraumatic stress , depression (economics) , internal consistency , psychometrics , medicine , social psychology , philosophy , linguistics , environmental health , archaeology , macroeconomics , economics , history
The aim of this study was to examine the validity of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among Vietnamese refugees. The study population included 74 Vietnamese refugees who had resettled in the metropolitan Boston area. The previously validated Harvard Trauma Questionnaire was used to assess traumatic events and trauma‐related symptoms. The number of traumatic events experienced was positively correlated with the severity of PTSD‐related symptoms in this population. Internal consistency estimates and principal components analysis provided results that generally supported DSM‐IV symptom dimensions of arousal, avoidance, and reexperiencing. However, the emergence of two separate dimensions of avoidance reflected the important contribution of depression to the traumatic response.