D Richards1. 1. School of Nursing Midwifery and Health Visiting, University of Manchester, UK.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: To investigate the relative importance of personal and social variables on post-trauma symptom recovery. DESIGN: Prospective survey of armed robbery victims. METHODS: Fifty-one consecutive armed robbery victims were assessed immediately and at 1 month post-raid for post-traumatic stress. One month post-raid, crisis support, causal attribution and coping were also measured. Thirty-one of the sample were assessed for symptoms 6 months after the raid. RESULTS: Both the main and follow-up samples had high levels of post-traumatic stress symptoms immediately after the raid which reduced significantly 1 month later and, for the follow-up subsample, further still 6 months later. Higher levels of symptoms at 1 month and poor crisis support were associated with higher levels of symptoms at follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Purposeful coping, symptom severity and social support effect post-trauma recovery.
OBJECTIVES: To investigate the relative importance of personal and social variables on post-trauma symptom recovery. DESIGN: Prospective survey of armed robbery victims. METHODS: Fifty-one consecutive armed robbery victims were assessed immediately and at 1 month post-raid for post-traumatic stress. One month post-raid, crisis support, causal attribution and coping were also measured. Thirty-one of the sample were assessed for symptoms 6 months after the raid. RESULTS: Both the main and follow-up samples had high levels of post-traumatic stress symptoms immediately after the raid which reduced significantly 1 month later and, for the follow-up subsample, further still 6 months later. Higher levels of symptoms at 1 month and poor crisis support were associated with higher levels of symptoms at follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Purposeful coping, symptom severity and social support effect post-trauma recovery.