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Body Piercings and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms in Young Adults
Author(s) -
Bui Eric,
Rodgers Rachel,
Simon Naomi M.,
Jehel Louis,
Metcalf Christina A.,
Birmes Philippe,
Schmitt Laurent
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
stress and health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.009
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1532-2998
pISSN - 1532-3005
DOI - 10.1002/smi.2427
Subject(s) - posttraumatic stress , psychopathology , young adult , psychology , body piercing , clinical psychology , psychiatry , checklist , injury prevention , poison control , suicide prevention , human factors and ergonomics , occupational safety and health , medicine , developmental psychology , medical emergency , dermatology , pathology , cognitive psychology
Body piercing, which is prevalent in young adults, has been suggested to be associated with features usually related to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) such as high‐risk behaviours and psychopathological symptoms and might be motivated by a wish to deal with prior traumatic experiences. However, to date, no research has investigated the relationship between this practice and PTSD symptoms. The present research aims to investigate the possible relationship between body piercing and PTSD symptoms in French‐speaking young adults. According to our results, having two or more body piercings was associated with a twofold increased risk for scoring above the cut‐off score for PTSD on the PTSD checklist. Our findings suggest that two or more body piercings might serve as an identifiable marker for PTSD symptoms and may have important implications for clinical screening. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.