Marianne Skogbrott Birkeland

• Clinical psychologist PhD Research Professor
• Researcher at Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies

Background Trauma and traumatic bereavement have well-known consequences for mental health, but little is known about long-term adjustment, particularly with respect to health-protective factors. Aims To assess the levels of anxiety/depression and perceived social support among the survivors and the bereaved 26 years after the Scandinavian Star fe...

On 6 December 2019 we start the 10th year of the European Journal of Psychotraumatogy (EJPT), a full Open Access journal on psychotrauma. This editorial is part of a special issue celebrating the 10 years anniversary of the journal and acknowledging some of our most impactful articles of the past decade. In this editorial the editors present a dece...

Background: The empirical literature of network analysis studies of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) has grown rapidly over the last years. Objective: We aimed to assess the characteristics of these studies, and if possible, the most and least central symptoms and the strongest edges in the networks of PTSS. Method: The present systematic revie...

Background Previous research suggest that rumination and poor social relationships contribute to the maintenance of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) after traumatic events. Less is known about how these factors work together. The aim of this study was to assess the association between ruminative coping style and long-term PTSS, and to determine...

Social support is crucial for mental health, particularly in the face of adversity. In this study, we examined whether COVID-19 related worries and perceived social support were independently associated with psychological distress, and determined whether perceived social support moderated the association between COVID-19 related worries and psychol...

Trauma is a global issue and public health concern. Political decisions may directly impact rates of trauma exposure, be it individual trauma or mass disaster, and guide how we deal with the consequences of trauma. In this editorial, we warn that the current U.S. administration's decisions are impacting exposure to and consequences of trauma worldw...

Background: Apps have the potential to support psychological treatments by providing psychoeducation, increasing homework compliance, and generalizing therapeutic skills outside of sessions. However, there are few apps developed to support specific evidence-based treatment for PTSD for adolescents. Objective: This paper shares experiences developin...

Background: Though there is substantial support for the importance of maladaptive appraisals for the development of posttraumatic stress reactions (PTSR), little is known about the long-term temporal relationship between maladaptive appraisals and PTSR beyond the first year after a traumatic event. Objective: We aimed to investigate three research...

To mark 15 years of the European Journal of Psychotraumatology, editors reviewed the past 15-year years of research on trauma exposure and its consequences, as well as developments in (early) psychological, pharmacological and complementary interventions. In all sections of this paper, we provide perspectives on sex/gender aspects, life course tren...

Objective: Young people with post-traumatic stress disorder experience difficulties in social and interpersonal domains. We examined whether the best-evidenced treatments of PTSD for children and young people (Trauma-focussed Cognitive Behavioural Therapy or Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing; aged 5–25) improve social or interpersonal f...

Background: Even though evidence-based treatment is generally effective in reducing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among youth, many still experience elevated symptoms after treatment. A better understanding of how PTSD develops through treatment can increase treatment efficiency and reduce residual symptoms. Objective: The current study inve...

Background: Epidemiological studies document increasing incident rates of mental disorders across childhood and adolescence, with mood and anxiety disorders particularly increasing among adolescent females. Research also indicates that these emotional problems have become more prevalent in recent decades. Yet, there is still a lack of understanding...

Background: Epidemiological studies document increasing incident rates of mental disorders across childhood and adolescence, with mood and anxiety disorders particularly increasing among adolescent females. Research also indicates that these emotional problems have become more prevalent in recent decades. Yet, there is still a lack of understanding...

The existing theories of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have inspired large volumes of research and have contributed substantially to our current knowledge base. However, most of the theories are of a qualitative and verbal nature, and may be difficult to evaluate and compare with each other. In this paper, we propose that one way forward is...

Background This study aims to provide a better understanding of the individual impact of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) on functional impairment in trauma-exposed children and adolescents. Identifying PTSS that have the most impact on functional impairment can b...

Psychological processes are dynamical in nature and display strong individual differences. Yet, studies based on cross-sectional data only reveal group-level effects and lack the ability to capture the dynamic properties of human psychology. The investigation of psychological dynamics and heterogeneity requires the modeling of within-person process...

Background: How do we remember what happened shortly before a traumatic experience? There has been little focus on the temporal context of trauma memories, but a few studies suggest that aspects of what happened in the moments prior to a traumatic experience may be selectively enhanced and prioritized in memory. Objective: The main aim of this stud...

Background: Previous meta-analyses of psychotherapies for children and adolescents with PTSD did not investigate whether treatment efficacy is diminished when patients report multiple (vs. single) traumas. Aims: The present work aimed to close this gap. Method: We systematically searched PsycINFO, MEDLINE, Web of Science and PTSDpubs on April 21st...

Background: The study examined the psychometric properties of the Child and Adolescent Trauma Screen 2 (CATS-2) as a measure of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) according to DSM-5 and (Complex) PTSD following the ICD-11 criteria in children and adolescents (7-17 years). Methods: Psychometric properties were investigated in an international s...

Background: Complex posttraumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) has recently been added to the ICD-11 diagnostic system for classification of diseases. The new disorder adds three symptom clusters to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) related to disturbances in self-organization (affect dysregulation, negative self-concept, and disturbances in relation...

Background Characteristics of traumatic events may be associated with the level and specific manifestation of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). This study examined the differences and similarities between overall levels, profiles and networks of PTSS after sexual trauma, domestic violence, community violence, non‐interpersonal trauma, sudden lo...

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has represented a burden to communities worldwide. Research indicates that this burden is not equally distributed in the community, and vulnerable groups, such as violence-exposed individuals may pay a particularly high prize. Perceived social support is known to buffer against negative effects of trauma and adversi...

Generalized trust, the belief that most other people can be trusted, has positive consequences for health and wellbeing. An increased sense of community is often seen in times of crisis or disaster, but it is unclear whether this is the case in the COVID-19 pandemic. The objectives of the current study were to assess whether generalized trust incre...

Most interventions for men who have acted violently toward their partner have been conducted as group interventions within a criminal justice context. Therefore, few studies have examined individual psychotherapy and how such interventions may reduce partner violence. In this study, we aimed to describe changes in violence, and changes in clinical...

Objective Characteristics of traumatic events may influence the level and specific manifestation of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). This study examined the differences and similarities between severity, profiles, and networks of PTSS after sexual trauma, domestic violence, community violence, non-interpersonal trauma, sudden loss or serious i...

Background There is an urgent need for knowledge about the mental health consequences of the ongoing pandemic. The aim of this study was to identify vulnerability factors for psychological distress and reduced life satisfaction in the general population. Furthermore, we aimed to assess the role of COVID-related worries for psychological distress an...

This study examines the alcohol use and alcohol intoxication trajectories for victims of childhood violence over time and the potential pathways of relational difficulties and revictimization for the association between childhood abuse and problematic drinking behavior. The sample included 681 respondents (aged 19–37 years) from a follow-up study (...

Background: It is well known that the quality of social relationships is related to mental health, particularly in the face of adversity. Social relationships are complex and can perhaps not be fully understood from a purely individual perspective. Recent contributions have highlighted the need for a societal or ecological approach (Ajduković, 2013...

Background: Characteristics of the traumatic event may influence the levels of and specific manifestation of particular symptoms of post-traumatic stress (Grimm, Hulse, Preiss, & Schmidt, 2012). For example, sexual trauma has been found to be associated with higher levels of post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) than both motor vehicle accidents an...

Background There is an urgent need for knowledge about the mental health consequences of the ongoing pandemic. The aim of this study was to identify vulnerability factors for psychological distress and reduced life satisfaction in the general population. Furthermore, we aimed to assess the role of COVID-related worries for psychological distress an...

Background: There is an urgent need for knowledge about the mental health consequences of the ongoing pandemic. The aim of this study was to identify vulnerability factors for psychological distress and reduced life satisfaction in the general population. Furthermore, we aimed to assess the role of COVID-related worries for psychological distress a...

Background: Previous studies have documented negative impacts of the covid-19 pandemic on mental health in the general community. Less is known about how the pandemic has impacted users of mental health and substance abuse services. Methods: We invited users of mental health and substance abuse services to an online survey concerning their reaction...

In the original publication, the Table 1 was published.

Many studies show that perceived social support protects against the development of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) in the aftermath of trauma, but less is known about support in relation to PTSSin trauma therapy. This study examined associations between perceived social support and PTSSin children and adolescents during trauma therapy. Parall...

In the present study, we investigated the phenomenological characteristics of distant trauma memories and the relationship between the vividness of trauma memories, the centrality of event and symptoms of posttraumatic stress in two groups with different types of trauma exposure, namely survivors, and bereaved, from the fire on the passenger ferry...

Unaccompanied refugee minors are a particularly vulnerable group. The aim of this study is to increase our knowledge about possible pathways to well-being and integration for unaccompanied refugee minors as they strive to establish new lives in a host county. The present study followed a group of youth who fled to Norway without their caregivers at...

Objective: Exposure to violence during childhood can have severe long-term consequences for social relationships. In the current study, we sought to disentangle some of the phenomena involved by utilizing a network approach to study the perceptions of aspects of social landscapes in young adulthood of victims of childhood violence. Method: We us...

https://www.nkvts.no/rapport/vold-i-oppveksten-varige-spor-en-longitudinell-undersokelse-av-reviktimisering-helse-rus-og-sosiale-relasjoner-hos-unge-utsatt-for-vold-i-barndommen/

Long-term mental health and social support in victims of disaster: comparison with a general population sample – ERRATUM - Volume 5 Issue 2 - Siri Thoresen, Marianne Skogbrott Birkeland, Filip K. Arnberg, Tore Wentzel-Larsen, Ines Blix

Natural disasters, technological disasters, and terrorist attacks have an extensive aftermath, often involving society’s institutions such as the legal system and the police. Victims’ perceptions of institutional trustworthiness may impact their potential for healing. This cross-sectional study investigates institutional trust, health, and social s...

Rationale: Shame related to childhood violence can be detrimental to mental and physical health. Shame may erode social bonds. Objective: In this study we tested whether loneliness is an important pathway between violence-related shame and health problems. Method: Individuals who reported exposure to childhood violence in a telephone interview...

A growing body of research suggests that counterfactual thinking after traumatic events is associated with post-traumatic stress reactions. In this study we explored frequency of upward and downward counterfactuals in trauma-exposed individuals, and how trauma-related counterfactuals were represented in terms of vividness. We examined the relations...

Background: Psychological distress following experiencing bullying victimization in childhood has been well documented. Less is known about the impact of bullying victimization on psychosocial adjustment problems in young adulthood and about potential pathways, such as shame. Moreover, bullying victimization is often studied in isolation from other...

Background: Posttraumatic stress symptoms are more prevalent in women than in men. To improve our understanding of gender differences in PTSD, detailed knowledge about the underlying symptom networks and gender specific symptom profiles is needed. Objective: We aimed to describe the gender differences in levels of individual posttraumatic stress sy...

A network approach to posttraumatic stress symptoms in a trauma-exposed sample. This is the poster version of this published paper: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317312557_Making_connections_exploring_the_centrality_of_posttraumatic_stress_symptoms_and_covariates_after_a_terrorist_attack.

Background: Posttraumatic stress symptoms are interconnected. Knowledge about which symptoms of posttraumatic stress are more strongly interconnected or central than others may have implications for the targeting of clinical interventions. Exploring whether symptoms of posttraumatic stress may be differentially related to covariates can contribute...

Objective This study examined relationships between victimization from bullying and symptoms of posttraumatic stress (PTSS) after exposure to a terror attack at the workplace. It was hypothesized that (1) victims of bullying report higher and more stable levels of PTSS over time compared to their non-bullied colleagues and (2) that PTSS provides an...

Background: There has been limited epidemiological research describing population-based samples regarding developmental pathways throughout infancy, and the research that exists has revealed substantial diversity. Identifying predictors for developmental pathways can inform early intervention services. Methods: The Ages and Stages Questionnaire...

Objective: It is well established that direct exposure to terrorism can result in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, individuals indirectly exposed to terrorism may also develop symptoms of PTSD. This study examined the prevalence and course of symptom-defined PTSD in employees who were present and not present at the site of a workplac...

Background: Whereas the association between social support and psychological distress has been well-established through both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies, less is known about whether social support influences rate of change in psychological distress over time. Nor is it clear whether social support predicts baseline psychological distre...

Prospective studies describing and predicting individual differences in the course of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) after disasters are scarce. The present study aimed to describe and predict individual differences in both the level and the rate of change in PTSS after the 2011 Oslo bombing, a terrorist attack directed at the Norwegian gover...

A terrorist attack targeting a workplace represents an organizational crisis that requires the leaders to manage emerging threats. The changing roles and expectations of the leaders are reflected in the employees' perceptions of them over time. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the 2011 Oslo bombing attack affected the targeted emp...

Postnatal depression (PND) is associated with adverse effects on a broad range of child outcomes, including language problems. The current study aimed to investigate if the time of exposure to maternal PND symptoms measured with the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) at 6 weeks, 4 months and 6 months postpartum were related to the infants’...

Counterfactual thinking (CFT), that is thinking about what might have happened, is linked to posttraumatic stress. We studied the relationship between type and frequency of CFT and posttraumatic stress in a sample of directly (n=50) and indirectly exposed (n=50) ministerial employees four years after the 2011 Oslo bombing. The results showed that f...

Objective: Cross-sectional studies have revealed that high levels of optimism can protect against high levels of posttraumatic stress after exposure to trauma. However, this is the first study to explore (a) the protective role of optimism in a longitudinal perspective and (b) optimism's protective effects on specific symptom clusters within the p...

Background: Our understanding of the dynamics of post-traumatic stress symptomatology and its link to functional impairment over time is limited. Method: Post-traumatic stress symptomatology (Post-traumatic Checklist, PCL) was assessed three times in 1-year increments (T1, T2, T3) following the Oslo bombing of 22 July, 2011, in directly (n = 257...

Construing a traumatic event as central to one's life story and identity is associated with posttraumatic stress. The longitudinal relationship between centrality of event and trajectories of posttraumatic stress was examined. Data from ministerial employees were collected 10 months, 2 years, and 3 years after the 2011 Oslo bombing (N = 259). Using...

Purpose: The impact of leadership practices on employee health may be especially evident after extreme events that have physical, psychological, or material consequences for the members of an organization. In this prospective study, we aimed to examine the association between leadership behavior and psychological distress in employees who had expe...

Background: After traumatic events, social support and posttraumatic stress are interrelated, but little is known about the underlying dynamics behind this association. Levels of social support and posttraumatic stress may change and affect each other over time, but there are also stable time-invariant individual differences in both constructs. Th...

This study used latent growth modeling to examine continuity and changes in depressed mood, predictors, and outcomes in a cohort of Norwegian adolescents followed from age 13 into adulthood age 30. First, the average development of depressed mood can be described by a slight increase in adolescence followed by a decrease in emerging adulthood. Ther...

There is a gap in the literature concerning the temporal course, and the bidirectional nature, of the relationship between posttraumatic growth (PTG) and posttraumatic stress symptoms. This longitudinal study investigated PTG and posttraumatic stress in individuals directly exposed to the 2011 Oslo bombing (N = 240). To investigate the relationship...

Experiencing terrorism is associated with high levels of psychological distress among survivors. The aim of the present study was to examine whether work environmental factors such as role clarity and predictability, role conflicts, and leader support may protect against elevated levels of psychological distress after a workplace terrorist attack....

Background and objectives: Potentially traumatic events may lead to different patterns of posttraumatic stress symptoms and posttraumatic growth. The objective of the present study was to identify subgroups with different patterns of posttraumatic reactions, and to determine whether these subgroups differed in terms of personal and social resource...

Previous studies have reported that construing a traumatic event as central to one's life story and identity are associated with posttraumatic growth (PTG). Due to cross-sectional designs, these studies provide only weak evidence of a causal relationship between event centrality and PTG. The main aim in the present study is to examine the longitudi...

Norway has an extensive welfare system which may provide adolescents with many options and high levels of flexibility in terms of pathways to adulthood. This study aimed to describe Norwegian developmental pathways to adulthood, including changes in role statuses (such as living situations, education, work, marriage/cohabitation and parenthood) fro...

Experiencing potentially traumatic events is associated with psychological distress. However, some survivors also experience positive personal and psychological changes in the aftermath of trauma. The present study investigated perceived posttraumatic growth in 197 ministerial employees who were present at work during the 2011 Oslo bombing attack....

Having a distant relationship with parents seems to increase the risk of developing a more negative global self-esteem. This article describes a longitudinal study of 1,090 Norwegian adolescents from the age of 13-23 (54 % males) that explored whether peer acceptance can act as a moderator and protect global self-esteem against the negative effects...

Participation in leisure activities is an important arena for the positive psychological development of adolescents. The present study set out to examine the relationship between adolescents' satisfaction of the psychological needs for competence, relatedness, and autonomy in their participation in leisure activities and their perceived life satisf...

This study used a latent growth curve modeling approach to examine body image satisfaction in 1132 Norwegian adolescent and adult males and females measured at six times between ages 13 and 30. An additional model examined the long term influence of parent-child relationship, peer relationship (both relationships assessed at age 13), and BMI (measu...

Based on data from a 17‐year longitudinal study of 1083 adolescents, from the ages of 13 to 30 years, the average development of self‐reported global self‐esteem was found to be high and stable during adolescence. However, there is considerable inter‐individual variance in baseline and development of global self‐esteem. This study used latent growt...

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine and test the possible directions of the relationships between leisure-time physical activity and depressed mood. Method: A 10-year longitudinal study with a sample of 924 adolescents was conducted, and data were collected 8 times from the age of 13 years to the age of 23 years. The data were analysed...

As a follow up to ordinary therapy, three clients were interviewed about using asynchronous text communication with their therapist via a secured internet-based system (e-therapy). Electronic communication was experienced as a positive mode of therapy. Clients appreciated both the freedom to write at any time and the possibility to influence the th...

Three therapists were interviewed about their exploratory use of e-therapy (asynchronous text-communication) subsequent to ordinary out-patient psychotherapy with three adolescents. Two therapists experienced their patients as more active, while one was less concealing, when compared to ordinary psychotherapeutic treatment. A feeling of reduced the...