Gender and PTSD: What can we learn from female police officers? |
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| Authors: | Michelle M Lilly Nnamdi Pole Suzanne R Best Thomas Metzler Charles R Marmar |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA;2. Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA;3. San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center, USA;1. Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA;2. Department of Psychology, Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis, Indianapolis, IN, USA;1. Graduate School of Medical Science and Engineering, KAIST, Daejeon, Republic of Korea;2. Department of Neuropsychiatry, Eulji University School of Medicine, Eulji University Hospital, 95 Dunsanseo-ro, Seo-gu, Daejeon 302-799, Republic of Korea;3. Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Dongguk University, Ilsan Hospital, Goyang, Republic of Korea;4. Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Republic of Korea;1. RTI International, 3040 Cornwallis Drive, Durham, NC 27719, United States;2. Department of Psychiatry, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, and New York State Psychiatric Institute, NY, United States;1. University of Lorraine, Laboratory INTERPSY, 23 Boulevard Albert 1st, 54015 Nancy, France;2. Brandeis University, Psychology Department, 415 South St. MS062, Waltham, MA 02454, USA |
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| 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. |
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