Summarizes the results of a study of more than 700 7- to 15-year-old students living in Sarajevo and exposed to the war in Bosnia. Survey instruments included the Children’s Posttraumatic Stress Reaction Index, the Impact of Event Scale, and the Children’s Depression Inventory. Among the key findings were that most of the students had experienced direct or indirect sniper fire; the students who had lost a member of the immediate or extended family exhibited more symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) than did the other students; and the children who suffered from lack of water and shelter were significantly more likely to manifest avoidance behavior than those not similarly deprived. While, the experience of sniper fire was not correlated with development of PTSD symptoms, the loss of a family member and deprivation of food, water, and shelter were shown to have a severe, adverse impact on the study subjects. Deprivation was associated with significantly increased symptoms of avoidance and hyper vigilance, which reinforces the correlation between war atrocities and personal losses with the development of PTSD.
