The effect of prior stressful experience on coping with war trauma and captivity

The study assessed the implications of childhood life events, Holocaust background, combat experiences, war captivity and negative post-captivity life events in the mental status of ex-POWs (164) and comparable controls (184), 18 years after the war. Findings confirm the association between stressful life events in the course of the life span and five outcomes: PTSD, intrusion and avoidance tendencies, psychiatric symptomatology, and impaired social functioning. Different life events have different effects. War captivity made the strongest contribution to all dependent variables.