We are aware of only one review of the determinants of TE exposure (Hatch & Dohrenwend, 2007). That paper considered basic sociodemographic predictors (gender, socio-economic status, race/ethnicity, age) and focused entirely on developed countries (primarily the USA). The authors found, not surprisingly, that men and women differ in the types of events they experience, with men reporting more injuries, accidents and physical assault and women reporting more sexual assault. They also found that low socio-economic status, racial/ethnic minority status and being a young adult were associated with increased TE exposure. There is good reason to think, though, that socio-demographic predictors will vary in magnitude and by type of TE, as some TEs, like natural disasters, are more randomly distributed in the population than others. We would also expect to find significant associations of geographic location and cohort with exposure to some types of TEs due to time–space variation in the occurrence of historical events (e.g. wars, and natural and man-made disasters).
