Because the sample had potential for high levels of TE due to ongoing political violence and terrorism, the primary analysis focused on graded TE and PTSD variables to capture individual variability in the amount of TE and number of PTSD symptoms experienced. However, analyses also were conducted with binary variables for comparison to prior research and to provide information on these relationships from a diagnostic perspective, potentially of interest to clinicians. The binary TE variable reflected ever experiencing any traumatic event, and the binary PTSD variable reflected meeting criteria for either full PTSD based on DSM-IV criteria (7) or partial PTSD (i.e., endorsed at least 1 symptom from each of Criteria B, C, and D, and symptoms lasted at least 1 month following the traumatic event) (43). Both full and partial PTSD groups evidenced similar rates of and associations with substance dependence in preliminary analyses and thus were combined, similar to other studies (44). Logistic regression analyses with bootstrapping were used to evaluate the effect of TE with and without PTSD in the model, as described in the “Statistical Analysis” section above.
