Resolving the vulnerability paradox in the cross-national prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder

Socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals are at heightened risk for developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following exposure to trauma. Yet a study of cross-national lifetime prevalence rates of PTSD revealed that countries scoring high on an index reflecting cultural and socioeconomic disadvantage exhibited lower rates of PTSD in response to trauma, evincing what the authors called a vulnerability paradox in the cross-national prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder Diickers, Alisic, & Brewin (2016a, p. 300). Drawing on classic studies in sociology and political science concerning the ecological fallacy, the author suggests ways to resolve the striking paradox discovered by Diickers et al.