BACKGROUND: While on duty abroad developmental aid workers (DAWs) are at risk of being traumatised. We investigated the prevalence of traumatic events, @entity1005 ( @entity1005 ) and @entity1005 as well as associations with duty features and the psychological variable of social acknowledgement as victim or survivor. METHOD: A total of 312 developmental aid workers from the governmental German Development Service (DED) were surveyed by use of a @entity130 list, demographic questionnaire, the Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale (PDS) and the Social Acknowledgement Questionnaire (SAQ). In addition, @entity1 answered an open question concerning the amelioration of the DED's care provision. RESULTS: Some 47% of the surveyed DAWs had experienced and 7% of them had witnessed traumatic events while on duty abroad. A total of 16% developed either full or partial @entity1005 with the highest conditional @entity1005 probability after rape (33%) and life-threats (23%). Experience of traumatic events was correlated to duration of duties and number of duties, while @entity1005 symptomatology was associated with self-perceived general disapproval as a @entity130 victim. CONCLUSIONS: DAWs on duty in foreign countries experience more traumatic events compared with other German representative population samples. @entity1005 prevalences are also higher than those of German population samples. The association between rejection as a victim of @entity130 and @entity1005 severity indicates a possible starting-point for the development of @entity1005 prevention specific to this profession. Implications of the study are discussed with regard to @entity1 ' suggestions on how to handle traumatic experiences while on duty abroad.

XXXX and posttraumatic reactions in German development aid workers: prevalences and relationship to social acknowledgement.

@entity130 :: ('MESH:D014947', 'Disease') :: ['trauma'] @entity1 :: ('9606', 'Species') :: ['participants'] @entity1005 :: ('MESH:D013313', 'Disease') :: ['posttraumatic stress disorder', 'subsyndromal PTSD', 'PTSD']
@entity130 :: (MESH:D014947,Disease) :: ['Trauma']
