The authors examined the mediating role of posttraumatic stress symptoms in the relationship between traumatic event exposure and attention problems in a sample of 791 Sarajevan children exposed to the Bosnian war. They hypothesized that because of similarities in the arousal symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the hyperactive-inattentive symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), PTSD symptoms would mediate the relationship between trauma exposure and attention problems. The findings support the hypothesis. The findings also show evidence of a reporter effect, whereby the relationship between trauma symptoms and attention problems was ...

<.001 for significance. Results indicated that more girls than boys reported that they worried about rape during the war. Conversely, more boys than girls reported carrying dead or wounded bodies during the war. Older children reported experiencing many more war atrocities than their younger counterparts ([chi-square]s>