Die verband tussen interpersoonlike fortaliteit en weerstand teen posttraumatiese stressimptome by kinderhuiskinders

English: A review of literature indicates that more research is currently needed on the way in which post-traumatic stress disorder manifests in children and how it is influenced by certain risk and resilience factors. The role of the family and interpersonal factors have been identified as very important influences on the adjustment of children after traumatisation. The aim of this research was to investigate the relationship between certain fortigenic factors, such as family involvement and interpersonal strength, as well as age and gender as biographic factors, with post-traumatic stress symptoms in children of an orphanage. The family involvement of the children with their supervising parents of their home in the orphanage, were investigated. The research group consisted of 80 orphans from Bloemfontein. The children’s family involvement and interpersonal strength were measured by the Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale which was completed by the specific homes’ supervising parents. The children’s level of posttraumatic stress was determined by their completion of the Trauma Symptom Checklist for children. Favourable reliability indices were reported by Cronbach’s coefficient alphas. A hierarchical regression analysis was done. Based on the statistical processing of the data it was found that girls reported more symptoms of post-traumatic stress than boys and that family involvement as well as interpersonal strength did not have a negative correlation with post-traumatic stress symptomatology. Contradictory to expectations, family involvement correlated positively with post-traumatic stress symptomatology. No significant relationship was found between age and post-traumatic stress. These findings are not in line with previous research findings that regard close relationships with parents as well as other adults an important fortigenic factor. Possible explanations for the results are given, shortcomings and recommendations for further research and practice are presented.