Personality Traits, Depression and PTSD Symptoms in Adulthood in Relation to Remembered Childhood War Trauma

This study aimed to examine how remembered childhood trauma, specifically related to the Kosovo War, is associated with personality traits, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in adulthood.

The study included 355 university students who were between 2 and 8 years old during the Kosovo War (1998-1999) and had reached a mean age of 20.6 years at the time of data collection in October 2015. Participants completed paper-and-pencil assessments, including the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ), the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised (NEO PI-R), and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Data were analyzed using SPSS 21. Descriptive statistics summarized scores across measures, and Pearson's correlations and linear regression analyses were used to assess associations between variables (significance set at p < .05).

A total of 13.1% of participants met the criteria for PTSD, and 39.4% reported trauma related to the war. High levels of neuroticism and average scores on other personality traits were observed. Regarding depression, 53% of participants fell within the normal range, while 47% reported varying levels of depressive symptoms. Childhood trauma was positively associated with PTSD and negatively associated with extraversion and agreeableness. PTSD also showed a negative correlation with extraversion. No significant correlations were found between BDI scores and other measured variables.

The results suggest that childhood trauma is associated with adult PTSD symptoms and may influence certain personality traits, particularly lower extraversion and agreeableness.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40653-025-00744-8.