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Browsing by Subject "traumakokemukset"

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  • Elinaikaisten stressikokemusten yhteys ahdistusoireisiin myöhäisaikuisuudessa 
    Lähdepuro, Anna Emilia (2014)
    Objectives: Anxiety symptoms are among the most common psychiatric problems in late adulthood, and they have a wide negative impact on an individual's physical and psychological health. Stressful life experiences may increase anxiety symptoms throughout life, even in late adulthood. The purpose of this master's thesis was to study the association between stressful life experiences, such as self-reported trauma, low socioeconomic status in childhood and adulthood and early separation from parents, and self-reported anxiety symptoms in late adulthood. Moreover, the aim was to examine if cumulative stressful life experiences are associated with a greater amount of anxiety symptoms in later life. Methods: This study comprised 1872 participants of the Helsinki Birth Cohort Study born in Helsinki in 1934-1944. The participants completed the BAI anxiety questionnaire in 2007-2009. In addition to this, 1266 of the participants completed the TEC questionnaire in 2001-2004, inquiring about traumatic events throughout life. Information about the participants' socioeconomic status in childhood and adulthood and childhood separation from parents due to war was based on data from national registers. The association between the different stressful life experiences and anxiety symptoms in late adulthood was examined using linear regression analysis. Moreover, the number of traumatic experiences, the age in which trauma and separation were experienced, and cumulative stressful life experiences as risk factors for anxiety symptoms were examined using one-way ANOVA and t-tests. Participants' age, sex, parity and mother's age were used as covariates. Results and conclusions: As expected, higher amount of self-reported traumatic experiences were associated with higher levels of anxiety symptoms in late adulthood. This association was also found for physical and emotional trauma separately. Moreover, lower socioeconomic status in childhood and adulthood were associated with a higher amount of anxiety symptoms. However, no significant association between childhood separation and later anxiety symptoms was found. Stressful life experiences both in childhood and in adulthood were associated with later anxiety symptoms. Cumulativeness of different stressful life experiences was associated with self-reported anxiety symptoms: the higher amount of stressful life experiences an individual had experienced during life course, the higher was the amount of anxiety symptoms. In conclusion, our results suggest that stressful life experiences throughout life course may increase anxiety symptoms in late adulthood.
  • Elinaikaisten traumojen yhteys varhaisaikuisuuden optimismiin 
    Jantunen, Noora (2015)
    Objectives: Optimism is usually defined as a stable outcome expectancy. Optimism is known to be positively connected to well-being and health but there are few studies to examine the development of optimism. Traumatic experiences are known to have various negative effects on well-being and mental health. There are also studies that show an association between traumas and personality development and change. Because optimism and pessimism are thought to be concepts similar to personality traits, it is justifiable to study if traumas are also related to optimism and/or pessimism. There are no studies to investigate this earlier. The aim of this study is to examine whether lifetime trauma experiences are associated with optimism-pessimism in early adulthood and whether different traumas or the age of trauma experience have differential effects. Methods: This study is part of the Arvo Ylppö Longitudinal Study (AYLS). All newborns born between 1985 and 1986 in the county of Uusimaa, Finland, who needed hospital care during ten days after birth were invited to participate. Also controls not admitted to the hospital wards were recruited. The current 25-year-old follow-up study consisted of 902 participants who completed a self-report questionnaire for optimism (LOT-R) and a retrospective self-report for traumatic experiences (TEC). The associations between lifetime traumas and optimism-pessimism in early adulthood were analyzed statistically using linear regression and analysis of variance and t tests when examining different groups for the amount of traumas and for different age groups. Results and conclusions: Reporting of any traumatic experience was associated to lower optimism and higher pessimism. The more traumatic experiences one had the lower was optimism and the higher was pessimism. By contrast, the age of traumatic experiences was not statistically significantly associated with the trait of optimism-pessimism. These results remained after controlling demographic variables. However, after controlling neuroticism, only the connection between emotional traumas and optimism-pessimism remained statistically significant. Because optimism and pessimism are known to have an impact on well-being and coping in future adversities, the association between traumas and optimism-pessimism can be considered noteworthy. The results of this study give ground for discussion about whether optimism interventions could be targeted to people who have experienced traumatic events to reduce the negative effects of trauma.

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