War trauma exposed refugees and posttraumatic stress disorder: The moderating role of trait resilience

Objective: Examining how exposure to pre-migration war related trauma and duration of living in refugee camp can impact on PTSD and psychiatric morbidity, while assessing the moderating role of trait resilience and coping style. Methods: In a cross-sectional study, exposure to war related trauma and duration of living in refugee camp was evaluated in a sample of 83 asylum seekers and refugees from the Middle East, together with an assessment of PTSD and psychiatric morbidity via self-rating instruments. Trait resilience and coping style were also measured. Results: Eighty-three participants were included in the analysis, 96.4% reported having experienced more than one war related traumatic event while the mean duration of living in refugee camps was 23.6 (SD = 7.6) years. Of the entire sample, 32.5% reached the threshold for clinical presence of PTSD and 38.8% for psychiatric morbidity. Both pre-migration war related trauma (F(1,82) = 24.118, p < .001) and duration of living in refugee camp (F(2,81) = 2.511, p = .008) were significantly associated with PTSD. Trait resilience moderated effects of high-profile trauma exposure on PTSD severity, R2 = 0.26, MSE = 0.547, F(3,79) = 9.6357, p < .0001, with higher resilience levels weakening the effect of traumatic exposure on PTSD development. Conclusions: Our results shed light on the ways that resilience can influence the relationship between war trauma exposure and PTSD symptoms. Findings support the role of resilience-based interventions in order to bolster resilient functioning and optimize treatment of this disadvantaged and highly distressed population.