Objective
To investigate African unaccompanied refugee minors (URMs) living in Austria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) prevalence and related symptoms, comorbidity, demographics and coping strategies.
Method
“UCLA PTSD Index and inventories” and “Scales for Children Afflicted by War and Persecution (SCWP)” were used to assess 41 African URMs.
Results
The study revealed lower PTSD rates than measured among URMs in previous studies. Girls were more likely to develop PTSD. PTSD was significantly correlated with single war-related traumatic events. The depression score for the sample was above the clinical cut-off value.
Conclusions
Trauma-specific psychopathology was less severe than reported in other studies. These findings could be explained by concepts of resilience. Other implications, such as response bias, are discussed.