Objectives: The objective of this study was to identify naturally occurring typologies of Faroese adolescents on the basis of their exposure to traumatic and negative life events. It was hypothesized that underlying typologies of trauma and negative life events would be uncovered. Furthermore, it was hypothesized that males would be overrepresented in classes characterized by the endorsement of a wide range of trauma and negative life events. On the basis of prior research, it was also hypothesized that females had endorsed more traumas of a sexual nature and that males had endorsed more traumas of a violent nature. Finally, post-traumatic stress, negative affectivity, and somatization were examined in the different typologies. Methods: Latent class analyses were conducted with the use of data collected from a self-report questionnaire survey from 687 Faroese eighth graders (85% response rate). The questionnaire included a traumatic and negative life event list, the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire-Part IV, and the Trauma Symptom Checklist. Results: Three classes of adolescents were identified on the basis of their exposure to potentially traumatic and negative life events. The baseline class (81.3%) had a low probability of the endorsement of all potentially traumatic and negative life events, except threats of violence and bullying. This group had low scores for post-traumatic symptoms, negative affectivity, and somatization. Class 2 (13.7%) comprised mainly males and had the highest probability of endorsement of threats of violence, physical assault, and bullying; this group also had high scores for post-traumatic stress symptoms, negative affectivity, and somatization. Finally, Class 1 (5.0%) consisted of adolescents with a relatively high risk of exposure to all potentially traumatic events and negative life events, except threats of violence. This group had the highest scores for posttraumatic stress symptoms, negative affectivity, and somatization. Conclusions: The present study can be said to be a concise picture of trauma exposure and its consequences among Faroese adolescents, and it is thereby a valuable tool for the national planning of preventive and interventional strategies and for empirically founded economic prioritization. These results emphasize the importance of choosing a trauma-informed strategy in various disciplines, such as pediatrics, child and adolescent psychiatry, social work, and school psychology when the aim is to provide the appropriate intervention.

Objectives: Suicide is still one of the leading causes of youth mortality, and amongst others previous suicide attempts have been found to be one of the strongest risk factors for suicide. The objective of this study is to examine risk factors of suicide attempts in a total population of Faroese adolescents. It is expected that anxious attachment, high scores on negative affectivity and low scores on past and present social support were correlated to an increased risk of life-time suicide attempts in both female and male adolescents. Method: Analyses were conducted based on data from The Faroese Adolescent Trauma Study, a self-report questionnaire survey including a total population of Faroese eighth graders (N = 687; 85 % response rate, mean age 14.2 years, SD = 2.1). The questionnaire included The Revised Adult Attachment Scale (RAAS), The Trauma Symptom Checklist (TSC), and The Crisis Support Scale (CSS). Results: In the total population 9.9 % (N = 68) of the participants reported life-time suicide attempt; of those 28 % were boys and 72 % were girls. In line with the expectations, the initial comparison showed that adolescents reporting life-time suicide attempt had significantly higher scores on attachment anxiety and negative affectivity, and had significantly lower scores on attachment closeness, and both past and present social support. Further analyses stratified on gender, however, revealed unexpected results, as a high score on negative affectivity only was a significant risk factor for life-time suicide attempt among the girls, and high score on attachment closeness only was a significant protective factor of life-time suicide attempt among the boys. Conclusions: This study provides important data about the role of attachment, negative affectivity, and social support in suicide attempts in a total population of Faroese adolescents. Moreover the results show the necessity of taking gender into account in research of risk and protective factors of suicide attempts, and when establishing arrangements to prevent and treat suicide attempts in adolescents.