Potentially traumatic events and post-traumatic symptomatology in high school students

Objective. Describe the occurrence of potentially traumatic events (PTE) in high-school students, measure subthreshold post-traumatic symptomatology in those who still experience PTE repercussions and associate the symptomatology with sociodemographic and PTE characteristics. Materials and methods. Analytic transversal study carried out in a convenience sample of one thousand students from three high schools in the State of Mexico. The Scale for Post Traumatic Stress in University Students was applied. The presence of symptoms, their frequency and their association with explanatory variables was assessed by means of logistic and quantile logistic regression models, respectively. Results. 80% reported PTE. Of this, 79% still experienced current repercussions and almost a half presented symptomatology. Gender, number of events, and PTE characteristics (perceived and grave symptoms) were associated. Conclusions. Results suggest to intervene early to reduce the risk of developing a disorder.