Table 2.
Characteristics of the study participants.
| Clinical subsample |
Non-clinical subsample |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Variable | (n = 106) | (n = 63) | ||
| Age, years (standard deviation) | 35.87 | (8.5) | 20.51 | (2.2) |
| Female, n (%) | 106 | (100) | 31 | (49.2) |
| Index trauma, n (%) | ||||
| Accident or fire | 1 | (0.9) | 13 | (20.6) |
| Natural disaster | 1 | (0.9) | 6 | (9.5) |
| Nonsexual assault (known assailant) | 57 | (53.8) | 6 | (9.5) |
| Nonsexual assault (unknown assailant) | 1 | (0.9) | 2 | (3.2) |
| Sexual assault (known assailant) | 25 | (23.6) | 4 | (6.3) |
| Sexual assault (unknown assailant) | 14 | (13.2) | 6 | (9.5) |
| Combat or war zone | 0 | (0) | 0 | (0) |
| Sexual abuse | 2 | (1.9) | 5 | (7.9) |
| Imprisonment | 3 | (2.8) | 2 | (3.2) |
| Torture | 1 | (0.9) | 0 | (0) |
| Life-threatening illness | 1 | (0.9) | 1 | (1.6) |
| Other | 12 | (11.3) | 18 | (28.6) |
| PTSD diagnosis, n (%) | 94 | (88.7) | 3 | (4.8) |
Index trauma was self-rated via the Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale and confirmed to be the same with what was obtained through the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) interview. Some participants indicated that more than one event disturbed them the most; PTSD, posttraumatic stress disorder diagnosed via the CAPS. Other traumatic events included sustained domestic violence (n = 6), abuse (n = 2), sexual or power harassment (n = 2), sexual or nonsexual crime (n = 2) in the clinical subsample; bullying (n = 3), injury (n = 3), unnatural death of close person or close place (n = 3), painful childhood incidents (divorce, punishment) in the family (n = 2), victim of stalker, molester, or encounter with a stranger with a weapon (n = 3), other setbacks (n = 2), or no answer/unclear (n = 2) in the non-clinical subsample. Most of the non-clinical participants (87%) answered that they experienced the index trauma over a half year ago, but data for the clinical sample was not clear.