Lifetime traumatic stressors and adverse childhood experiences uniquely predict concurrent PTSD, complex PTSD, and dissociative subtype of PTSD symptoms whereas recent adult non-traumatic stressors do not: results from an online survey study

This retrospective survey study compared the differential risk of lifetime traumatic stressors, so-called “non-traumatic stressors” experienced over the past year, referring to life events that do not meet the criteria for A1 traumatic events, and adverse childhood experiences (ACE) on severity of DSM-5 versus ICD-11 PTSD, Complex PTSD (CPTSD), and dissociative subtype of PTSD (D-PTSD) symptoms among 418 participants recruited online. In pairwise analyses, all stress types were associated with all outcomes. However, multiple regression and factor analyses indicated that whereas the number of different lifetime traumatic events participants reported experiencing, together with the number of ACE participants experienced, uniquely predicted DSM-5 PTSD, D-PTSD and ICD-11 PTSD and CPTSD symptoms, the number of non-traumatic stressors they experienced during the last year did not. Moreover, ACE uniquely predicted all outcomes even after accounting for lifetime traumatic stress. These results provide further support for the particularly high risk of lifetime traumatic stressors and ACE in predicting trauma and stressor-related symptoms. Future research directions are discussed.