Understanding young people’s attitudes towards violence and other frightening events

Adolescents are vulnerable to the onset of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Prevalence of PTSD is high; one in five adolescents in South Africa, have a probable diagnosis of PTSD. A key causal factor of PTSD is negative self-evaluation i.e., a negative view of oneself. This has implications for adolescents as this reflects
a time when the self is developed and consolidated. Thus, a negative self-evaluation developed during this time, combined with exposure to trauma may lead adolescents vulnerable to the development of PTSD. However few studies have investigated the relationship between self-evaluation and PTSD in adolescents especially among an impoverished LMIC community. Research has tended to focus on adults using
predominately Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich and Democratic (WEIRD) data. Therefore, the aim of the proposed research is to characterise conceptualisation of self-evaluation in this population and provided data in a open-access resource for researchers to build on and use.