PTSD symptom severity relates to cognitive and psycho-social dysfunctioning – a study with Congolese refugees in Uganda

Figures & data

Table 1. Descriptive statistics of the main study variables and gender differences.

		Males		Females
	N	M	SD	M	SD	t
Age	M = 141; F = 182	31.94	9.03	30.87	9.01	1.06
Education	M = 139; F = 180	7.06	4.73	5.38	4.81	3.12**
Traumatic exposure ^a	M = 141; F = 179	34.64	8.02	36.25	8.03	−1.78
PTSD symptom severity ^b	M = 141; F = 179	29.71	13.90	35.70	11.64	−4.11***
Psycho-social dysfunctioning in everyday life ^c	M = 141; F = 181	5.86	5.32	8.17	6.05	−3.64***
Corsi block tapping (CBT) task	M = 141; F = 179	12.21	4.10	10.23	3.71	4.53***
Tower of London (TOL) test	M = 140; F = 179	27.71	6.13	24.74	6.85	4.02***

t: t-test or Welch-test statistics; *p ≤ 0.05. **p ≤ 0.01. ***p ≤ 0.001. ^aIndex of traumatic and other adverse event types, ^bPSS-I sum score, ^cLuo functioning scale sum score.

Table 2. Results of regression analysis predicting working memory.

	Scores of CBT
	B	SE	β	T
Step 1
Sex	−1.79	0.42	−0.23	−4.26***
Age	−0.01	0.02	−0.02	−0.30
Education	0.22	0.04	0.28	5.05***
Step 2
Sex	−1.21	0.42	−0.16	−2.87**
Age	−0.02	0.02	−0.05	−0.88
Education	0.25	0.04	0.31	5.81***
PTSD symptom severity ^a	−0.10	0.02	−0.32	−4.85***
Trauma exposure ^b	0.06	0.03	0.11	1.71

R²adj = 0.21, f² = 0.27, n = 300. B: unstandardized regression weight; SE: standard error; β: standardized regression weight; T = t test statistics; **p ≤ 0.01. ***p ≤ 0.001. ^a PTSD symptom scale – interview sum score, ^b Index of traumatic and other adverse event types.

Table 3. Results of regression analysis predicting executive functions.

	TOL score
	B	SE	β	T
Step 1
Sex	−2.37	0.61	−0.20	−3.85***
Age	−0.07	0.04	−0.11	−2.07*
Education	0.51	0.06	0.41	8.04***
Step 2
Sex	−1.91	0.63	−0.16	−3.02**
Age	−0.08	0.04	−0.12	−2.35*
Education	0.52	0.06	0.43	8.29***
PTSD symptom severity ^a	−0.09	0.03	−0.19	−2.95**
Trauma exposure ^b	0.07	0.05	0.09	1.41

R²adj = 0.26, f² = 0.35, n = 298. B: unstandardized regression weight; SE: standard error; β: standardized regression weight; T = t test statistics; *p ≤ 0.05. **p ≤ 0.01. ***p ≤ 0.001. ^aPTSD symptom scale – interview sum score, ^bIndex of traumatic and other adverse event types.

Table 4. Results of regression analysis predicting psycho-social functioning in everyday life.

	LFS score ^a
	B	SE	β	T
Step 1
Sex	2.86	0.67	0.25	4.27***
Age	0.04	0.04	0.06	1.02
Education	0.24	0.07	0.20	3.41**
Step 2
Sex	0.77	0.52	0.07	1.49
Age	0.12	0.03	0.17	4.02***
Education	0.11	0.05	0.09	2.07*
PTSD symptom severity ^a	0.31	0.02	0.68	15.37***
Step 3
Sex	0.69	0.52	0.06	1.34
Age	0.10	0.03	0.16	3.66***
Education	0.15	0.06	0.12	2.53*
PTSD symptom severity ^a	0.32	0.02	0.69	15.32***
Executive functioning	−0.14	0.04	−0.15	−3.13**
Working memory performance	0.15	0.07	0.10	2.09*
Step 4
Sex	0.49	0.52	0.04	0.94
Age	0.10	0.03	0.14	3.39***
Education	0.15	0.06	0.12	2.57*
PTSD symptom severity ^a	0.32	0.02	0.70	15.41***
Executive functioning	−0.13	0.04	−0.15	−3.02**
Working memory performance	0.13	0.07	0.09	1.81
ExF*PSS	−0.01	0.01	−0.13	−2.70**
WMP*PSS	0.01	0.01	0.10	1.93

R²adj = 0.51, f² = 1.04, n = 295. B: unstandardized regression weight; SE: standard error; β: standardized regression weight; T = t test statistics; ExF*PSS: interaction between executive functioning and PTSD symptom severity; WMP*PSS: interaction between working memory performance and PTSD symptom severity. *p ≤ 0.05. **p ≤ 0.01. ***p ≤ 0.001. ^aLuo functioning scale, ^bPTSD symptom scale – interview sum score.