PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING AND RATINGS OF PSYCHIATRIC-SYMPTOMS IN BEREAVED ISRAELI ADOLESCENTS - DIFFERENTIAL EFFECT OF WAR-BELATED VERSUS ACCIDENT-BELATED BEREAVEMENT

Eight hundred seventy-one Israeli adolescents, 375 boys and 496 girls, mean age 16.7 +/- 1, participated in this study. Twenty-three of them lost relatives in war and 19 in road accidents. All participants were administered the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), the General Well-Bein g Scale (GFYB), the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) and the Perceive d Social Support-Family/Friend (PSS-Fa and PSS-Fr) measures. War-berea ved adolescents showed significantly higher scores in psychological we ll-being (GWB) and significantly lower scores in reported psychiatric symptoms (BSI) than accident-bereaved adolescents. War-bereaved adoles cents also had significantly better BSI and GWB scores than the genera l nonbereaved adolescent population. These results persisted after con trolling for family socio-economic status, gender, and the degrees of closeness of the deceased relative. War-bereaved adolescents did not d iffer either from accident-bereaved adolescents or hom the nonbereaved general adolescent population in social and family support systems (P SS-Fr, PSS-Fa) and did not experience different basic parental attitud es (PBI). Results are discussed in terms of the different meanings asc ribed to death in battle versus death in a road accident.