Document Type
Article
Publication Date
8-1-2009
Publication Title
Journal of Anxiety Disorders
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.
Keywords
Gender, Peritraumatic distress, Police, PTSD, Somatization
Volume
23
Issue
6
First Page
767
Last Page
774
DOI
10.1016/j.janxdis.2009.02.015
ISSN
08876185
Rights
© The Author(s) 2009
Recommended Citation
Lilly, Michelle M.; Pole, Nnamdi; Best, Suzanne R.; Metzler, Thomas; and Marmar, Charles R., "Gender and PTSD: What Can We Learn from Female Police Officers?" (2009). Psychology: Faculty Publications, Smith College, Northampton, MA.
https://scholarworks.smith.edu/psy_facpubs/122
Comments
Peer reviewed accepted manuscript.