Anxiety and Depressiveness in Students With Childhood War-Related Experiences

The aim of this study was to determine differences in intensity of anxiety and depressiveness, as well as the frequency of the clinically relevant form of these emotions, in students exposed to warfare during childhood. The study included 324 students from Serbia and Kosovo, 18-25 years of age. At the time of the clashes (in 1999), their ages ranged from 6 to 13 years. We used a general questionnaire, the Beck Depression Inventory I (BDI-I), and the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). Approximately two thirds of the examinees had clinically significant anxiety, while one third had clinically significant depressiveness. Females had a higher intensity of anxiety (16.22 vs. 11.6; p<.001) and depressiveness (9.57 vs. 7.05; p=.004) than males. Examinees who reported war-related experiences (WREs) from two or three types of events had more intense anxiety (p=.013) and depressiveness (p=.013) than a group with one or no WREs. There was an association between WREs during childhood and anxiety as well as depression in adolescence that was more prominent in females.