Traumatic Experiences And Depression In Student Population / Gender Differences
Traumatic Experiences And Depression In Student Population / Gender Differences

Summary/Abstract: Exposure to wartime and post-war traumatic childhood events is a potent risk factor for developing depression symptoms during youth. Using the sample of student population from Serbia and Kosovo and Metohija, this paper attempts to determine if there are gender differences in the occurrence of depression and to determine the frequency of depression symptoms in relation to war-related experiences (WRE), peace-time experiences (PTE), cumulative traumatic experiences (WRE+PTE), or without traumatic experiences (TE). We used the following tools in the paper: general questionnaire for demographic data and type of traumatic event exposure; Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) for depression level and symptoms; for statistics, ANOVA test and chi-square test; and for post-hoc analysis, Tukey‘s Honestly Significant Difference (HSD) test. The value of p<0.05 is taken as statistically significant. The females had a slightly higher level of depression compared to males ((9.04±8.13:6.42±6.93); the group with WRE+PTE had a statistically higher level of depression compared to all other groups. In females, depression was higher in the group with cumulated trauma experiences, compared to the group with PT (p=0.033) and to the group without TE (p=0.002). Those females had more depression symptoms: crying, agitation, changes in sleep pattern, concentration difficulty, and loss of interest in sex. Results indicate the need for psychological support for young people, especially for girls in war- and peace-time traumatic experiences.

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