A study of aggression among mass-evacuated Kosovo Albanians

Aggression among a sample of traumatized, mass-evacuated adults from Kosovo was studied, using a prospective design with a baseline study, follow-ups at three months and six months in Sweden, and an additional follow-up after one and a half years in both Sweden and Kosovo. Aggression was measured with the Revised Swedish Version of Aggression questionnaire (AQ-RSV). Traumatic events and PTSD-related symptoms were measured by the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ), and depression with HSCL-25. At the additional follow-up after one and a half years, the same measures were used, as well as clinical diagnostic interviews with the SCID. Verbal aggression correlated positively with age and educational level. No gender differences were found. The trauma level was high - the mean experienced number of the 16 trauma events derived from the HTQ was 9.65 (SD 3.55) - and significant correlations were found between trauma and aggression at the first follow-up after three months - torture, for instance, correlated with total aggression scores (p<0.003) - but not in later follow-ups. Aggression increased over time and was linked with both mean scores of PTSD and depressive symptoms, as well as with the diagnoses PTSD (p<0.0001) and depression (p<0.0001), especially if both diagnoses were present. Implications are discussed.