Psychological well-being and ratings of psychiatric symptoms in bereaved Israeli adolescents: differential effect of war-versus accident-related bereavement.

Eight hundred seventy-one Israeli adolescents, 375 boys and 496 girls, mean age 16.7 +/- 1, participated in this study. Twenty-three of them lost relatives in war and 19 in road accidents. All participants were administered the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), the General Well-being Scale (GWB), the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) and the Perceived Social Support-Family/Friend (PSS-Fa and PSS-Fr) measures. War-bereaved adolescents showed significantly higher scores in psychological well-being (GWB) and significantly lower scores in reported psychiatric symptoms (BSI) than accident-bereaved adolescents. War-bereaved adolescents also had significantly better BSI and GWB scores than the general nonbereaved adolescent population. These results persisted after controlling for family socio-economic status, gender, and the degrees of closeness of the deceased relative. War-bereaved adolescents did not differ either from accident-bereaved adolescents or from the nonbereaved general adolescent population in social and family support systems (PSS-Fr, PSS-Fa) and did not experience different basic parental attitudes (PBI). Results are discussed in terms of the different meanings ascribed to death in battle versus death in a road accident.