| Abstract [eng] |
More than 70 percent of people experience traumatic events at least once in their lives, but only about 4 percent of them experience post-traumatic stress symptoms (Kessler et al., 2017). Previous studies have found that the risk of post-traumatic stress is increased by factors such as previous mental health problems, the level of stress experienced, and the lack of social support (Brewin et al., 2000). However, research addressing the different determinants of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) symptoms is still lacking, especially in the emerging adulthood, when the risk of mental disorders is particularly high. Thus, the aim of this study was to reveal the risk and protective factors of post-traumatic stress during emerging adulthood. A two-wave longitudinal study included 204 university students (age at T1 M = 19.11; SD = 1.11; 76.5% women). The Life Events List (LEC, Weathers et al., 2013) was used to assess exposure to traumatic experiences, the International Trauma Questionnaire (ITQ, Cloitre et al., 2018) was used to assess post-traumatic stress symptoms, and the symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression were assessed by Depression anxiety and stress scale (DASS, Henry & Crawford, 2005), Social support – by Social support questionnaire (F-SozU, Fydrich et al., 2009), and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic – by COVID-19 pandemic distress scale (Truskauskaite-Kuneviciene and Kazlauskas, 2020). Autoregressive cross-lagged analysis (SEM) models were analyzed for data analysis. The results of the study revealed that the level of stress symptoms and social support was negatively related, and the level of anxiety was positively related to the increase in the symptoms of complex post-traumatic stress. In addition, the recent traumatic experiences and the COVID-19-related distress were found to be positively associated with an increase in post-traumatic stress symptoms. These findings suggest that mental health promotion and prevention programs for young people should take into account risk factors for post-traumatic stress, such as anxiety, stress levels, experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic and low level of social support. |
