Événements traumatogènes, âge de survenue, symptômes anxio-dépressifs et comportements addictifs dans un échantillon de jeunes adultes recruté en ligne

Abstract

ObjectivesIn France, the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder is estimated around 3,9 %, yet very few studies have been conducted on potentially traumatic events in French samples, in particular in a population of young adults. Moreover, the severity of the act (violence and repetition) and the age of the victim seem to be aggravating factors in the development of psychiatric symptoms. Our main objective was to examine the distribution of potentially traumatic events in a non-clinical sample of young adults and to study their relationships between traumatic events, addictive behaviors, and depressive and anxiety symptoms. We also paid particular attention to the impact of their age at the time of the events and the repetition of these events. Materials and methodsA sample of 735 participants, aged from 18 to 35 years (M=22.6; SD=4) completed a questionnaire on the Internet. Several scales have been used including the Trauma History Questionnaire, the Impact of Event Scale-Revised, the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, the Penn State Worry Questionnaire, and the Shorter Promis Questionnaire for assessing addictive behaviors. Sub-groups, according to the age of the person at the time of the first potentially traumatic event and the type of the event, were created in order to identify risk groups. ResultsOur results showed that more than 90 % of the sample reported at least one potentially traumatic event while approximately 60 % reported repeated traumatic events. There were 21 % to significantly suffer from post-traumatic stress symptoms, 29 % from generalized anxiety symptoms and 37 % from depressive symptoms. The higher risk periods for being the victim of sexual or physical assaults were preadolescence and adolescence. Among addictive disorders, substances, tobacco and alcohol had higher mean scores; among behaviors, it was bulimia, work and shopping. Besides these, compulsive helps had scores around twice higher than the other relationships. There was a correlation between traumatic events and anxiety disorders, depressive symptoms, and addictive behavior related to sex, work, sport, and relationship. Multiple regression analysis revealed that depressive symptomatology was highly explained by the presence of some addictive behaviors while generalized anxiety and post-traumatic stress symptoms were less explained by these behaviors. ConclusionsOur study showed that potentially traumatic events appear more frequently than on other studies. Moreover, these events were associated with numerous psychiatric symptoms, including multiple addictive behaviors. Those events and post-traumatic stress symptoms had a more sizable presence, compared to results in previous studies. Descriptive analysis underlined the vulnerability of children confronted with repeated traumatic events. These results suggest the importance of setting specific preventive actions up, according to age, in particular with adolescents and pre-adolescents, who seem to be the most affected by physical and sexual aggressions.