**3. Results**

Participant's characteristics are depicted in Table 1. Groups with, and without lifetime PTSD are identical with regards the subjects' age, marital status, prevalence of disability, Gra ffar classification, and the deployment site where they were at war. All the veterans self-reported good physical and mental health before going to war.


**Table 1.** Sociodemographic characteristics of the total sample and according to having or not having lifetime PTSD.

> Note: PTSD, posttraumatic stress disorder.

Attachment was significantly associated with lifetime PTSD (Table 2). High scores in anxiety and avoidance attachment were significantly associated with lifetime PTSD (*p* = 0.002 and 0.001, respectively). The association between anxiety and lifetime PTSD ceased to exist when adjusting for avoidance and total war exposure (total WEQ score). On the other hand, the association between avoidance and lifetime PTSD was attenuated, but still significant when adjusting for anxiety and total war exposure (*OR* = 7.21; 95% CI 1.02, 50.94; Table 2). When dimensions were converted to attachment styles, the prevalence of lifetime PTSD was significantly different between groups (*p* = 0.005; Figure 1). The groups with the dismissing (*p* = 0.040) and fearful (*p* = 0.004) styles of attachment have a higher prevalence of lifetime PTSD than the secure style group. A significant association was found between insecure attachment styles and lifetime PTSD (*OR* = 6.37; 95% CI 1.81, 22.46; Table 2). When adjusting for total war exposure, the association between insecure attachment styles and lifetime PTSD was attenuated, but was still significant (*OR* = 4.04; 95% CI 1.00, 16.34).


**Table 2.** Association between attachment dimensions and non-war-related traumatic events and lifetime posttraumatic stress disorder—both crude and adjusted.

Note: *OR*, odds ratio; CI, confidence interval; WEQ, War Exposure Questionnaire; TEs, traumatic events. a Model adjusted for attachment anxiety and avoidance and total WEQ score. b Adjusted for total war exposure.

**Figure 1.** Prevalence of lifetime posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) by styles of attachment (*p* = 0.005). \* Considering as reference, the secure style.

Having experienced non-war-related TEs (either before or after the war) was not associated with lifetime PTSD (Table 2). ACE, as assessed by the CTQ-SF, showed that total CTQ-SF experiences (*p* = 0.037), and particularly, emotional abuse (*p* = 0.024) and physical neglect (*p* = 0.004) were significantly associated with lifetime PTSD development (Table 3). Total CTQ-SF experiences remained significantly associated with lifetime PTSD after adjustment for total war-related experiences (*p* = 0.039). Furthermore, total CTQ-SF experiences did not interact with total war experiences to predict lifetime PTSD (data not shown).


Note: *OR*, odds ratio; CI, confidence interval; CTQ-SF, Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form; WEQ, War Exposure Questionnaire. a Adjusted for total war-related experiences (total WEQ score). b Adjusted for total childhood adversities (total CTQ-SF score).

With regards to war-related experiences, these were all significantly associated with lifetime PTSD, except for the case of those related to injury or disease (Table 3). Adjusting total war-related experiences to childhood adversities did not change the OR (Table 3), nor did adjusting for attachment dimensions (Table 2). Furthermore, total war experiences did not interact with attachment dimensions to predict lifetime PTSD (data not shown). In relation to action against civilians, 25 (49%) of the subjects who did not report this experience developed lifetime PTSD, whilst the nine (100%) who did report this experience developed lifetime PTSD (*p* = 0.013).
