But war is stressful; you forget to floss.
Stressful war experiences were measured using a Stressful War Events (SWE) questionnaire designed specifically for the study population [ 28].
Our findings thus support the differential associations of childhood adversities and stressful war experiences with post-war mental health symptoms [ 11, 42].
However, there is limited data regarding the differential effects of childhood adversities and stressful war experiences on adolescents' post-war mental health [ 6, 12].
Participants completed self-administered questionnaires assessing demographics, stressful war experiences, childhood adversities, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety symptoms.
However, there is a paucity of data on whether childhood adversity adds independently to the risk associated with stressful war experiences, or if childhood adversity and stressful war experiences interact in predicting mental health.
Whereas most studies show that stressful war experiences have an established link with post-war mental health outcomes, some studies suggest that childhood adversity might be a more potent predictor of mental health symptoms.
We draw particular attention to the fact that childhood adversity did not moderate the relationship between stressful war experiences and the common mental health symptoms among adolescents post-war.
Lastly, in contrast to our hypothesis, childhood adversities did not moderate the association between stressful war experiences and all mental health symptoms, but it moderated the association between stressful war experiences and avoidance symptoms.
Both stressful war experiences and childhood adversities are risk factors for mental health symptoms among war-affected adolescents.
