Sensation seeking, wartime performance, and long-term adjustment among Israeli war veterans

The current study explored the implications of sensation seeking in immedia te and long term adjustment to war-related traumatic events. More specifica lly, the associations between sensation seeking, performance under war stre ss and long term emotional adjustment were examined. Three groups of Israel i veterans of the 1973 Yom Kippur war were studied: 112 combat stress react ion (CSR) casualties, 98 veterans who received medals for bravery and 189 c ontrols. Eighteen years after the war subjects filled out a battery of ques tionnaires. Findings indicated that sensation seeking plays a significant r ole in both performance during the war and subsequent long-term adjustment. Decorated war veterans were found to be higher-sensation seekers than CSR casualties and controls. In addition, high-sensation seekers suffered from lower levels of war-related intrusion and avoidance tendencies and PTSD sym ptoms than low-sensation seekers. The implications of these findings are di scussed. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.