The Predictive Utility of Trauma Subtypes in the Assessment of Mental Health Outcomes for Persons Resettled as Refugees.

Abstract

Pre-migration trauma, a psychological risk factor for refugees, is often measured using cumulative indices. However, recent research suggests that trauma subtypes, rather than cumulative trauma, may better predict psychological outcomes. This study investigated the predictive utility of trauma subtypes in the assessment of refugee mental health. Multiple regression was used to determine whether cumulative trauma or trauma subtypes explained more variance in depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom scores in 70 Syrian and Iraqi refugees. Subtype models performed better than cumulative trauma models for PTSD (cumulative R2 = 0.138; subtype R2 = 0.32), anxiety (cumulative R2 = 0.061; subtype R2 = 0.246), and depression (cumulative R2 = 0.041; subtype R2 = 0.184). Victimization was the only subtype significantly associated with PTSD (p < 0.001; r2 = 0.210), anxiety (p < 0.001; r2 = 0.162), and depression (p = 0.002; r2 = 0.140). Cumulative trauma was predictive of PTSD symptoms only (p = 0.003; r2 = 0.125). Trauma subtypes were more informative than cumulative trauma, indicating their utility for improving predictive efforts in research and clinical contexts.