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Hiscox, Lucy V., Bray, Sidney, Fraser, Abigail, Meiser-Stedman, Richard 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0262-623X, Seedat, Soraya and Halligan, Sarah L.
(2023)
Sex differences in the severity and natural recovery of child PTSD symptoms: A longitudinal analysis of children exposed to acute trauma.
Psychological Medicine, 53 (6).
pp. 2682-2688.
ISSN 0033-2917
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Abstract
Background: Higher levels of PTSD symptoms are present among trauma-exposed females v. males in adulthood; however, much less is known about the emergence of this sex difference during development. Methods: In a multi-study sample of 7–18-year-olds (n = 3397), we examined the effect of sex and age on the severity of PTSD symptoms after a single incident trauma at 1 month (T1), and on symptom change after a natural recovery period of 3 (T2) and 6 months (T3). PTSD scores were harmonised across measurement types, and linear regressions were used to determine sex and age effects, adjusting for study level variance and trauma type. Results: A sex × age interaction was observed at T1 (p < 0.001) demonstrating that older age was associated with greater PTSD symptom severity in females (β = 0.008, p = 0.047), but less severe symptoms in males (β = −0.011, p = 0.014). The same pattern was observed at T2 and T3, with sex differences beginning to emerge by age 12 years. PTSD symptoms decreased naturally by ~25% at T2 with little further improvement by T3. Further, females showed a greater reduction in symptoms at T3 than males, although the same effect was not observed at T2. Conclusions: Sex differences in PTSD symptoms become apparent during adolescence, due to opposing changes in susceptibility occurring in females and males with age. Understanding the factors contributing to these findings is likely to provide wider insight into sex-specific psychological vulnerability to trauma-related psychopathology.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | Data availability statement: The data that support the findings of this study can be accessed via The PACT/R Data Archive: https://childtraumadata.org/use-pactr-data. Funding Information: This work was funded by MRC grant MR/T002816/1 (SH). This publication is the work of the authors, and they will serve as guarantors for the contents of this paper. |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | adolescence,r,ptsd,longitudinal,sex-differences,trauma recovery,applied psychology,psychiatry and mental health ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3200/3202 |
| Faculty \ School: | Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Norwich Medical School |
| UEA Research Groups: | Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Mental Health Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Centres > Lifespan Health |
| Related URLs: | |
| Depositing User: | LivePure Connector |
| Date Deposited: | 30 Oct 2021 00:47 |
| Last Modified: | 19 Oct 2023 03:07 |
| URI: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/81926 |
| DOI: | 10.1017/S0033291721004694 |
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