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. 2006 Mar;21(1):127-39.
doi: 10.1037/0882-7974.21.1.127.

Flashbulb memories and posttraumatic stress reactions across the life span: age-related effects of the German occupation of Denmark during World War II

Dorthe Berntsen  1 , David C Rubin
Affiliations

Flashbulb memories and posttraumatic stress reactions across the life span: age-related effects of the German occupation of Denmark during World War II

Dorthe Berntsen et al. Psychol Aging. 2006 Mar.

Abstract

A representative sample of older Danes were interviewed about experiences from the German occupation of Denmark in World War II. The number of participants with flashbulb memories for the German invasion (1940) and capitulation (1945) increased with participants' age at the time of the events up to age 8. Among participants under 8 years at the time of their most traumatic event, age at the time correlated positively with the current level of posttraumatic stress reactions and the vividness of stressful memories and their centrality to life story and identity. These findings were replicated in Study 2 for self-nominated stressful events sampled from the entire life span using a representative sample of Danes born after 1945. The results are discussed in relation to posttraumatic stress disorder and childhood amnesia.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Percentage participants reporting a memory (top panel) and mean ratings of vividness (bottom panel) for the day of the invasion and liberation by the age of the participant at the time of the event. The lines are from an exponential fit to the data. Each data point represents as a minimum 20 cases.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Mean score for posttraumatic stress reactions (top panel), mean ratings of vividness for negative events(middle panel), and mean score for CES (bottom panel) by the age of the participant at the time of his or her most traumatic event from the time of the German occupation. The lines are from an exponential fit to the data. Each data point represents as a minimum 20 cases.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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