The influence of different types of war experiences on depression and anxiety in a Ugandan cohort of war-affected youth: the WAYS study
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Date
2014
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology
Abstract
Background War experiences (WE) are frequently associated
with mental health problems. Whether different
types of WE vary in predicting which problem, or how
severe, in former child soldiers (FCS) remains unknown.
Methods Using data from the first wave of an on-going
longitudinal cohort study (the WAYS study), we investigated
relations between types of WE and symptoms of
depression/anxiety among FCS in Northern Uganda
(N = 539, baseline age = 22.39; SD = 2.03, range
18–25). Using robust Maximum Likelihood estimation in
SEM, regression analyses were performed to relate binary
indicators of types of WE to a single latent factor capturing
symptoms of depression/anxiety.
Results SEM results showed that ‘‘direct personal harm’’,
‘‘witnessing violence’’, ‘‘deaths’’, ‘‘threat to loved ones’’,
‘‘involvement in hostilities’’, and ‘‘sexual abuse’’ indicators
were related to reported symptoms of depression/anxiety
irrespective of gender and age. Multivariable models
revealed independent associations of ‘‘witnessing
violence’’ (b = 0.29, SE = 0.09, p\0.001) and ‘‘deaths’’
(b = 0.14, SE = 0.05, p\0.001) with symptoms of
depression/anxiety in both sexes. ‘‘Sexual abuse’’
(b = 0.32, SE = 0.16, p\0.001) independently predicted
symptoms of depression/anxiety for female but not male
youths whilst ‘‘threat to loved ones’’ (b = 0.13,
SE = 0.07, p\0.05) independently predicted symptoms
of depression/anxiety in male but not female youths.
Conclusions Dimensions of WE predicted symptoms of
depression/anxiety differently, but it is hard to establish
their causal status. Our findings suggest that it might be
fruitful to consider such exposure variations of WE when
designing interventions to mitigate the symptoms of
depression/anxiety on male and female FCS.
Description
Keywords
War experiences, War-affected youths, Gender, Depression/anxiety
Citation
Amone-P’Olak, K., Ovuga, E., Croudace, T. J., Jones, P. B., & Abbott, R. (2014). The influence of different types of war experiences on depression and anxiety in a Ugandan cohort of war-affected youth: the WAYS study. Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 49(11), 1783-1792. DOI 10.1007/s00127-014-0873-5