Gender and PTSD: What can we learn from female police officers?

Abstract Studies of civilians typically find that female gender is a risk factor for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Police and military studies often find no gender differences in PTSD. We compared 157 female police officers and 124 female civilians on several variables including trauma expos...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of anxiety disorders 2009-08, Vol.23 (6), p.767-774
Main Authors: Lilly, Michelle M, Pole, Nnamdi, Best, Suzanne R, Metzler, Thomas, Marmar, Charles R
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Adult and adolescent clinical studies
Anxiety disorders. Neuroses
Biological and medical sciences
Crime Victims - psychology
Emotional distress
Female
Gender
Gender differences
Humans
Law Enforcement
Life Change Events
Medical sciences
New York City - epidemiology
Peritraumatic distress
Personality Inventory - statistics & numerical data
Police
Police - statistics & numerical data
Police officers
Post-traumatic stress disorder
Posttraumatic stress disorder
Psychiatric Status Rating Scales
Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychometrics
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
PTSD
San Francisco - epidemiology
Sex Factors
Somatization
Somatoform Disorders - diagnosis
Somatoform Disorders - epidemiology
Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - diagnosis
Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - epidemiology
Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - psychology
Stress, Psychological - diagnosis
Stress, Psychological - epidemiology
Stress, Psychological - psychology
Surveys and Questionnaires
Symptoms
Violence - psychology
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Abstract Studies of civilians typically find that female gender is a risk factor for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Police and military studies often find no gender differences in PTSD. We compared 157 female police officers and 124 female civilians on several variables including trauma exposure, peritraumatic emotional distress, current somatization, and cumulative PTSD symptoms. We found that despite greater exposure to assaultive violence in the officer group, female civilians reported significantly more severe PTSD symptoms. Elevated PTSD symptoms in female civilians were explained by significantly more intense peritraumatic emotional distress among female civilians. We also found that female officers showed a stronger direct relationship between peritraumatic emotional distress and current somatization. Our findings suggest that apparent gender differences in PTSD may result from differences in peritraumatic emotionality, which influence subsequent PTSD and somatization symptoms. Emotionality may be more important than biological sex in understanding gender differences in PTSD.
ISSN:0887-6185
1873-7897
DOI:10.1016/j.janxdis.2009.02.015