Traces the experiences of a group of Cambodian children, from survival during a brutal war, to their first year of resettlement in the United States, to young adulthood. The paper examines three forms of stress (war trauma, resettlement stress, and stressful life events) and their manifestation in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. The study involved 69 subjects, roughly half of whom had participated in an earlier study. All subjects took part in a 2- to 3-hour diagnostic interview, using the following instruments: the Children?s Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia; the PTSD section of the Diagnostic Interview for Children and Adolescents; and a variety of scales to measure trauma and stress. Results revealed that: (1) subjects experienced a great deal of war trauma and resettlement stress, the latter better characterized as chronic strain because of its duration; (2) a strong relationship existed between war trauma experienced as a child and PTSD reported later asadolescents or young adults; (3) symptoms of depression were more strongly predicted by recent stressful events than by other forms of stress; and (4) symptoms of PTSD persisted longer than those did those of depression, and individuals with PTSD symptoms also experienced greater resettlement stress. (Description from source)
