CROSS-CULTURAL RESPONSE TO TRAUMA - A STUDY OF TRAUMATIC EXPERIENCES AND POSTTRAUMATIC SYMPTOMS IN CAMBODIAN REFUGEES

Despite a growing literature of cross-cultural research on mental illn ess, little is known about the universality of most psychiatric disord ers. This study was designed to determine whether people from a very d ifferent culture have the same symptoms in response to traumatic exper iences as do trauma survivors in the United States. We were also inter ested to find out if the severity of the current symptoms is related t o the amount of trauma experienced. Furthermore, we gathered informati on about the perceived severity of traumatic experiences among refugee s. Fifty Cambodian refugees living in the U.S. were asked about their traumatic experiences and their current symptoms of posttraumatic stre ss, dissociation, depression, and anxiety. High levels of all symptoms were found along with statistically significant relationships between each symptom measure and the amount of trauma experienced. We conclud e that the basic symptom picture in this group was similar to that obs erved in U.S. trauma survivors.