Results
To assess the roles of early adversity and self-perceived resilience
in the development of CTRA gene expression profiles in a nonWEIRD/LMIC
culture, we evaluated 154 former child soldiers
(age 16–26 y) and 136 matched civilians (15–24 y) who grew up
amid war but were not combatants (Table 1). The participants
were part of a 5-y longitudinal study that began in 2007, a year
after peace accords ending the decade-long People’s War in
Nepal (31, 32). Two hundred fifty-eight former child soldiers were
enrolled in the study before participating in nongovernmental
reintegration services provided by United Nations Children’s
Emergency Fund (UNICEF), and a cohort of 258 civilian children
matched on demographics were enrolled in the study but did not
receive intervention services. Twelve months later, 222 of the
former child soldiers (86% of original sample) and 234 of the
matched civilians (91%) were reinterviewed. For the current
study, in 2012, 154 of the former child soldiers (60% of original
participants) and 136 of the matched civilians (53%) were traceable
for interviews, at which time blood spots were collected for
gene expression profiling (n = 282). In 2012, posttraumatic stress
disorder (PTSD) was evaluated with the Child PTSD Symptom
Scale (CPSS) (33), which was culturally and clinically validated in
Nepal (34). Self-perceived psychological resilience was measured
using a culturally adapted abbreviated version of Wagnild and
Young’s Resilience Scale (35). The prevalence of PTSD in 2012