Age As A Risk Factor of Trauma in the Greek Female Population

Author(s): Antonopoulou Christina

The purpose of this study was to examine the frequency of trauma among Greek women, ages 20-55. Twenty six Greek females completed the TSI (John Briere), MDI (John Pierce), and DAPS (John Briere) questionnaires. A one way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was computed to determine whether age is a risk factor in the occurrence of trauma. Significant results were found in many items of each questionnaire, suggesting that the older a woman is the more likely she has experienced a traumatic event, and has been affected by it. For example, item #5 of the DAPS “Someone threatening to injure you or to do something sexual to you against your will, although they didn’t actually do anything to you, when you were afraid you would be hurt or killed?” was found to be significant (F=4,82 p<0,026) indicating that women 40 and up responded yes more often than women under 40. However, on the MDI women ages 30 to 40 scored higher, depicting dissociative qualities which lead us to assume that traumatic events occurred more recently in these women. Furthermore, we can infer that women in their 40’s and up continue to experience traumatic events, however have developed ways to cope “learned helplessness” with these negative experiences. Perhaps this is why women 40 and up show symptoms of depression and anxiety more often, while women in their 30’s display more often signs of acute traumatic dissociative qualities. Supporting our hypothesis are items on the MDI such as item #2 “Your body feeling like it was somebody else’s” (F=3,36 p<0,05) which was responded to most often by women in their 30’s.