The stress and trauma of school victimization in Ireland: A retrospective account

Abstract

As part of an international study examining student victimization(by both peers and educators) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)symptomatology, 154 Irish university students completed the ‘Student Alienation and Trauma Scale–Revised’. This examined retrospective accounts of negative experiences in school, identified worst school experiences, and assessed whether an individual developed PTSD symptomatology. Items regarding verbal/relational aggression were reported for both the negative experiences and the worst experience. Whilst 3.1% of males and 16.3% of females reported clinically significant PTSD resulting from their worst school experience, a further 3.1% of males and 3.1% of females were in the ‘at risk’ range.

Keywords

• PTSD symptomatology
• stress
• trauma
• peer-victimization
• educator-victimization