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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Gender And Ptsd: What Can We Learn From Female Police Officers?, Michelle M. Lilly, Nnamdi Pole, Suzanne R. Best, Thomas Metzler, Charles R. Marmar
Gender And Ptsd: What Can We Learn From Female Police Officers?, Michelle M. Lilly, Nnamdi Pole, Suzanne R. Best, Thomas Metzler, Charles R. Marmar
Psychology: Faculty Publications
Studies of civilians typically find that female gender is a risk factor for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Police and military studies often find no gender differences in PTSD. We compared 157 female police officers and 124 female civilians on several variables including trauma exposure, peritraumatic emotional distress, current somatization, and cumulative PTSD symptoms. We found that despite greater exposure to assaultive violence in the officer group, female civilians reported significantly more severe PTSD symptoms. Elevated PTSD symptoms in female civilians were explained by significantly more intense peritraumatic emotional distress among female civilians. We also found that female officers showed a …