Sex differences in the relationship between risk factors and PTSD

Title 

Sex differences in the relationship between risk factors and PTSD

Name

Dorte Mølgaard Christiansen

Abstract

Background: Many studies have examined sex/gender as a risk factor for PTSD and reported that women are approximately twice as likely to develop PTSD as men. However, few studies have treated sex as a  potential moderator and examined whether well-known risk factors predict PTSD equally well in men and women. 

Objectives: The focus of my PhD project is to examine sex as a moderator of the relationship between a number of well-known risk factors and PTSD.

The purpose is to examine:
Whether different risk factors predict PTSD differently in men and women, and whether men and women overall follow different pathways to PTSD.

Methods: I will not collect my own data but will instead analyse data from a number of different trauma samples, including parents bereaved by infant death, accident victims, interpersonal violence, and others. This gives me the opportunity to examine moderator effects across different trauma types and age groups and to examine a wider number of potential risk factors, than would otherwise have been possible, had I collected and used my own data.

Perspectives: The studies will help shed light on the role played by sex/gender in PTSD through both mediation and moderation following different trauma types.

Keywords

Posttraumatic stress disorder, sex/gender differences, mediation, moderation

Start date and expected end date

01.09.2009 - 15.6.2017
Prolonged duration due to reduced work hours

Main supervisor

Professor Andrew Moskowitz, University of Aarhus

Co-supervisors

Professor Ask Elklit

Collaborators

National Center for Psychotraumatology

Funding

Department of psychology and behavioural sciences, University of Aarhus