Table 2. Potentially traumatic events rated as having the most negative emotional impact on Liberian youth (n = 171).
| Event | Past yeara Mean (SD) |
Event | Past 20 yearsb Mean (SD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sexual violence | 3.05 (0.93) | Conflict/war stress* | 3.63 (0.60) |
| Poverty | 2.84 (0.95) | Poverty | 3.55 (0.65) |
| Infectious disease | 2.63 (1.05) | Sexual violence | 3.54 (0.71) |
| Domestic violence | 2.57 (1.02) | Exposed to extreme and/or prolonged fear | 3.46 (0.78) |
| Death of parents | 2.19 (1.12) | Witnessing atrocities | 3.44 (0.74) |
| Early marriage | 2.19 (1.17) | Separation from parents | 3.33 (0.71) |
| Neglect by parents/guardians | 2.18 (1.04) | Death of parents | 3.30 (0.70) |
| Loss of home | 2.08 (1.12) | Loss of home | 3.26 (0.75) |
| Starvation | 2.04 (1.01) | Starvation | 3.20 (0.79) |
| Death of siblings | 1.99 (1.05) | Domestic violence | 3.11 (0.84) |
Notes: a Likert scale response to question ‘How would you rate the following events in terms of their emotional impact on young people in Liberia in the past year?’ Response options were 0 = not at all; 1= a little; 2 = somewhat; 3 = quite a lot; 4 = extremely.
b Likert scale response to question “How would you rate the following events in terms of their emotional impact on young people in Liberia in the past 20 years?” Response options were 0 = not at all; 1= a little; 2 = somewhat; 3 = quite a lot; 4 = extremely.
*Conflict/war stress refers to experiences that were directly from the war. These are defined as exposure to the direct and indirect effects of extreme violence, social disruption and economic destruction associated with civil conflict, including but not limited to events such as genocide, forced displacement, destruction of property and food insecurity. Items such as torture, death of siblings could have occurred outside of the conflict.