Predeployment Personality Traits and Exposure to Trauma as Predictors of Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms: A Prospective Study of Former Peacekeepers

Abstract

Both pretrauma vulnerabilities and exposure to traumatic events were found to be important factors in the etiology of posttraumatic stress symptoms. The current study replicates in a non-American sample of peacekeepers findings obtained among American Vietnam veterans. Particularly, there is accumulating evidence for an etiological role of the personality trait of psychoneuroticism in the development of posttraumatic stress symptoms.