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Reports of Community Violence Exposure, Traumatic Loss, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, and Complicated Grief Among Guatemalan Aid Workers

Graduate School of Psychology, Fuller Theological Seminary,Pasadena, CA, kputman{at}fuller.edu
Graduate School of Psychology, Fuller Theological Seminary,Pasadena, CA
Graduate School of Psychology, Fuller Theological Seminary,Pasadena, CA
Graduate School of Psychology, Fuller Theological Seminary,Pasadena, CA
Graduate School of Psychology, Fuller Theological Seminary,Pasadena, CA
Graduate School of Psychology, Fuller Theological Seminary,Pasadena, CA
Graduate School of Psychology, Fuller Theological Seminary,Pasadena, CA
Graduate School of Education and Psychology, PepperdineUniversity, Malibu, CA

This study explores exposure to community violence (CV) and traumatic loss and their relation to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and grief symptoms among Guatemalan aid workers. Out of 135 workers surveyed, 79% reported that someone close to them had died, and 33% reported a loss that was rated as traumatic. The average number of lifetime incidents of CV reported was 13, and the highest was 32. In all, 36% of the sample reported symptoms that meet criteria for PTSD.Those participants who reported a traumatic loss also reported significantly higher complicated grief (CG) scores, and those who reported a traumatic human-perpetrated loss also reported significantly higher levels of hyperarousal PTSD symptoms than those who reported a traumatic loss that was nonhuman perpetrated.

Key Words: community violence • PTSD • grief • Central America • caregivers • traumatic loss

This version was published on September 1, 2009

Traumatology, Vol. 15, No. 3, 40-47 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1534765609332323


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