Using structural equation modeling, the present study investigated the relationship between after-effects of war-related traumatic events, generalized self-efficacy, self-esteem, subjective well-being, and distress. Questionnaires (Impact of Event Scale–Revised, Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, Satisfaction With Life Scale, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and Generalized Self-Esteem) were administered to 214 civilian war survivors in Kosovo. The results show a high prevalence of traumatic experiences (83%) with high psychological distress. The severity of traumatic stress was accompanied by negative affectivity and was inversely related to self-esteem. The other self-related constructs neither had an impact nor were found to be diminished by the amount of traumatic stress experienced.
Ai, A. L., Peterson, C., & Ubelhor, D. (2002). War-related trauma and symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder among adult Kosovar refugees. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 15(2), 157-160.
2.
American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
3.
Arbuckle, J. L. (1997). Amos user's guide. Chicago: Small Waters.
4.
Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 84(2), 191-215.
5.
Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
6.
Bonanno, G. A. (2004). Loss, trauma, and human resilience. Have we underestimated the human capacity to thrive after extremely aversive events?American Psychologist, 59(1), 20-28.
7.
Bonanno, G. A., Field, N. P., Kovacevic, A., & Kaltman, S. (2002). Self-enhancement as a buffer against extreme adversity: Civil war in Bosnia and traumatic loss in the United States. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28, 184-196.
8.
Bunce, S. C., Larsen, R. J., & Peterson, C. (1995). Life after trauma: Personality and daily life experiences of traumatized people. Journal of Personality, 63, 165-188.
9.
Carmil, D., & Carel, R. S. (1986). Emotional distress and satisfaction in life among Holocaust survivors—A community study of survivors and controls. Psychological Medicine, 16, 141-149.
10.
Cole, P., & Putnam, F. W. (1992). Effect of incest on self and social functioning: A developmental psychopathology perspective. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 60, 174-184.
11.
Creamer, M., Bell, R., & Failla, S. (2003). Psychometric properties of the Impact of Event Scale—Revised. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 41, 1489-1496.
12.
Dean, A. (1986). Measuring psychological resources. In N. Lin, A. Dean, & W. M. Ensel (Eds.), Social support, life events, and depression (pp. 97-111). London: Academic Press.
13.
De Neve, K. M., & Cooper, H. (1998). The happy personality: A meta-analysis of 137 personality traits and subjective well-being. Psychological Bulletin, 124, 197-229.
14.
Diener, E. (1984). Subjective well-being. Psychological Bulletin, 95, 542-575.
15.
Diener, E., & Diener, C. (1996). Most people are happy. Psychological Science, 7, 181-185.
16.
Diener, E., Emmons, R. A., Larsen, R. J., & Griffin, S. (1985). The satisfaction with life scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49(1), 71-75.
17.
Diener, E., Suh, E. M., Lucas, R. E., & Smith, H. L. (1999). Subjective well-being: Three decades of progress. Psychological Bulletin, 125(2), 276-302.
18.
Diener, E., Suh, E., & Oishi, S. (1997). Recent findings on subjective well-being. Indian Journal of Clinical Psychology, 24(1), 25-41.
19.
Ehlers, A., & Clark, D. M. (2000). A cognitive model of persistent posttraumatic stress disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 38(4), 319-345.
20.
Eissler, K. R. (1968). Weitere Bemerkungen zur KZ-Psychologie [Further remarks on KZ-psychology]. Psyche, 22, 452-463.
21.
Ekblad, S., Prochazka, H., & Roth, G. (2002). Psychological impact of torture: A 3-month follow-up of mass-evacuated Kosovan adults in Sweden. Lessons learnt for prevention. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 106(Suppl. 412), 30-36.
22.
Epstein, S. (1991). The self-concept, the traumatic neurosis, and the structure of personality. In D. Ozer, J. M. Healy Jr., & A. J. Stewart (Eds.), Perspectives in personality (Vol. 3, Part A, pp. 63-98). London: Jessica Kingsley.
23.
Feist, G. J., Bodner, T. E., Jacobs, J. F., Miles, M., & Tan, V. (1995). Integrating top-down and bottom-up structural models of subjective well-being: A longitudinal investigation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68, 138-150.
24.
Ferren, P. M. (1999). Comparing perceived self-efficacy among adolescents Bosnian and Croatian refugees with and without posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 12(3), 405-420.
25.
Fleming, J. S., & Courtney, B. E. (1984). The dimensionality of self-esteem: II. Hierarchical facet model for revised measurement scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46, 404-421.
26.
Foa, E. B., & Rothbaum, B. O. (1998). Treating the trauma of rape: Cognitive behavioral therapy for PTSD. New York: Guilford.
27.
Garfield, D., & Leveroni, C. (2000). The use of self-psychological concepts in a Veterans Affairs PTSD clinic. Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, 64(3), 344-364.
28.
Gillespie, A., Peltzer, K., & Maclachlan, M. (2000). Returning refugees: Psychosocial problems and mediators of mental health among Malawian returnees. Journal of Mental Health, 9, 165-178.
29.
Harel, Z., Kahana, B., & Kahana, E. (1988). Psychological well-being among Holocaust survivors and immigrants in Israel. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 1, 413-429.
30.
Headey, B., & Wearing, A. (1989). Personality, life events, and subjective well-being: Toward a dynamic equilibrium model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57, 731-739.
31.
Horowitz, M. (1982). Stress response syndromes and their treatment. In L. Goldberger & S. Breznitz (Eds.), Handbook of stress: Theoretical and clinical aspects (pp. 711-732). New York: Free Press.
32.
Horowitz, M., Wilner, N., & Alvarez, W. (1979). Impact of Event Scale: A measure of subjective stress. Psychosomatic Medicine, 41, 209-218.
33.
Horowitz, M. J. (1986). Stress response syndromes. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson.
34.
Hu, L., & Bentler, P. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling, 6(1), 1-55.
35.
Janoff-Bulmann, R. (1992). Shattered assumptions: Towards a new psychology of trauma. New York: Free Press.
36.
Joseph, S. (2000). Psychometric evaluation of Horowitz's Impact of Event Scale: A review. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 13(1), 101-113.
37.
Joseph, S., Williams, R., & Yule, W. (1995). Psychosocial perspectives on post-traumatic stress. Clinical Psychology Review, 15, 15-44.
38.
Judge, T. A., Locke, E. A., Durham, C. C., & Kluger, A. N. (1998). Dispositional effects on job and life satisfaction: The role of core evaluations. Journal of Applied Psychology, 83, 17-34.
39.
Kahana, B., Harel, Z., & Kahana, E. (1988). Predictors of psychological well-being among survivors of the Holocaust. In J. P. Wilson, Z. Harel, & B. Kahana (Eds.), Human adaptation to extreme stress: From Holocaust to Vietnam (pp. 171-192). New York: Plenum.
40.
Leon, G. R., Butcher, J. N., Kleinman, M., Goldberg, A., & Almagor, M. (1981). Survivors of the Holocaust and their children: Current status and adjustment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 41, 503-516.
41.
Lopes Cardozo, B., Kaiser, R., Gotway, C. A., & Agani, F. (2003). Mental health, social functioning, and feelings of hatred and revenge of Kosovar Albanians one year after the war in Kosovo. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 16, 351-360.
42.
McCann, I. L., & Pearlman, L. A. (1990). Psychological trauma and the adult survivors: Theory, therapy, and transformation. New York: Brunner/Mazel.
43.
McDonald, R. P., & Ho, M.-H. R. (2002). Principles and practice in reporting structural equation analyses. Psychological Methods, 7(1), 64-82.
44.
Morina, N. (2003). Albanian version of Impact of Event Scale–revised (IES-R). European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies Bulletin, 10(2), 7-10.
45.
Neal, L. A., Hill, N., Hughes, J., Middleton, A., & Busuttil, W. (1995). Convergent validity of measures of PTSD in an elderly population of former prisoners of war. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 10, 617-622.
46.
Parson, E. R. (1984). The reparation of the self: Clinical and theoretical dimensions in the treatment of Vietnam combat veterans. Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy, 14, 4-56.
47.
Pavot, W., & Diener, E. (1993). Review of the Satisfaction With Life Scale. Psychological Assessment, 5, 164-172.
48.
Pearlin, L. I., Lieberman, M. A., Menaghan, E. G., & Mullin, J. T. (1981). The stress process. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 22, 337-356.
49.
Rosenberg, M. (1965). Society and the adolescent self-image. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
50.
Rosenberg, M. (1979). Conceiving the self. New York: Basic Books.
51.
Saigh, P. A., Mroueh, M., Zimmerman, B. J., & Fairbank, J. A. (1995). Self-efficacy expectations among traumatized adolescents. Behavior Research and Therapy, 33, 701-704.
52.
Schwarzer, R. (1987). Stress, Angst und Hilflosigkeit [Stress, anxiety, and helplessness]. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer.
53.
Shmotkin, D., & Lomranz, J. (1998). Subjective well-being among holocaust survivors: An examination of overlooked differentiations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75(1), 141-155.
54.
Suh, E., Diener, E., & Fujita, F. (1996). Events and subjective well-being: Only recent events matter. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 1091-1102.
55.
Thoits, P. (1995). Stress, coping and social support processes: Where are we? What next?Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 35(extra issue), 53-79.
56.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. (2003). The Balkans, Kosovo. Retrieved November 6, 2004, from http://www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/balkans-country?country=kosovo
57.
van der Kolk, B. A., & Fisler, R. E. (1994). Childhood abuse and neglect and loss of self-regulation. Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, 58, 145-168.
58.
van der Kolk, B. A., McFarlane, A., & van der Hart, O. (1996). A general approach to treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder. In B. A. van der Kolk, A. McFarlane, & L. Weisaeth (Eds.), Traumatic stress. The effects of overwhelming experience on mind, body, and society (pp. 417-440). New York: Guilford.
59.
Veenhoven, R. (1991). Is happiness relative?Social Indicators Research, 24, 1-34.
60.
Von Collani, G., & Schyns, B. (2002, January). Generalized self-esteem expectations: Constructing and evaluating an integrated instrument for assessing personal resources and competence. Manuscript, University of Leipzig, Germany.
61.
Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 54(6), 1063-1070.
62.
Watson, D., Suls, J., & Haig, J. (2002). Global self-esteem in relation to structural models of personality and affectivity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83(1), 185-197.
63.
Weisenberg, M., Schwarzwald, J., & Solomon, Z. (1991). Effects of combat stress reaction and posttraumatic stress disorder on perceived self-efficacy in battle. Military Psychology, 3, 61-71.
64.
Weiss, D. F., & Marmar, C. R. (1997). The Impact of Event Scale–Revised. In J. P. Wilson & T. M. Keane (Eds.), Assessing psychological trauma and PTSD: A practitioners handbook (pp. 399-411). New York: Guilford.
65.
Wheaton, B. (1983). Stress, personal coping resources, and psychiatric symptoms: An investigation of interactive models. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 24, 208-229.
66.
Wilson, J. P., Smith, W., & Johnson, S. K. (1985). A comparative analysis of PTSD among various survivor groups. In C. R. Figley (Ed.), Trauma and its wake: Vol. 1. The study and treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (pp. 142-172). New York: Brunner/Mazel.
67.
Wohlfarth, T. D., van den Brink, W., Winkel, F. W., & ter Smitten, M. (2003). Screening for posttraumatic stress disorder: An evaluation of two self-report scales among crime victims. Psychological Assessment, 15, 101-109.
