Abstract:
The article presents the results of a study on the association between exposure to
family violence (i.e., witnessing interparental violence and experiencing parental
violence) during childhood and adolescence and adult posttraumatic stress disorder
(PTSD). The study was conducted among a self-selected convenience sample
of 476 students from Sri Lanka, using a self-administered questionnaire. The
findings indicate that the more participants witnessed interparental violence and
the more they experienced parental violence, the more they exhibited PTSD
symptoms. Moreover, the findings reveal that participants’ exposure to family
violence explains a significant amount of the variance in their PTSD over and
above the variance that can be attributed to their sociodemographic characteristics
(age, gender, number of siblings, and family’s socioeconomic status) and to
their perceptions of the environment and functioning of their families. The limitations
of the study and recommendations for future research are discussed.
