Appetitive Aggression as a Resilience Factor against Trauma Disorders: Appetitive Aggression and PTSD in German World War II Veterans

Abstract

Background: Repeated exposure to traumatic stressors such as combat results in chronic symptoms of PTSD. However, previous findings suggest that former soldiers who report combat-related aggression to be appetitive are more resilient to develop PTSD. Appetitive Aggression should therefore prevent widespread mental suffering in perpetrators of severe atrocities even after decades. Methods and Findings: To test the long-term relationship between trauma-related illness and attraction to aggression, we surveyed a sample of 51 German male World-War II veterans (age: M = 86.7, SD = 2.8). War-related appetitive aggression was assessed with the Appetitive Aggression Scale (AAS). Current- and lifetime PTSD symptoms were assessed with the PSS-I. In a linear regression analysis accounting for 31% of the variance we found that veterans that score higher on the AAS show lower PSS-I symptom severity scores across their whole post-war lifetime (β = -. 31, p =. 014). The effect size and power were sufficient (f2 = 0.51, (1-β) =. 99). The same was true for current PTSD (β = -. 27, p =. 030). Conclusions: Appetitive Aggression appears to be a resilience factor for negative long-term effects of combat experiences in perpetrators of violence. This result has practical relevance for preventing trauma-related mental suffering in Peace Corps and for designing adequate homecoming reception for veterans. © 2012 Weierstall et al.