The main purpose of this study was to compare different groups of survivors of the civil war in Bosnia (1992 - 1995) with respect to symptoms of PTSD and coping measures. Forty-six men and 34 women (soldiers, refugees, land mine victims, and persons who survived the war at home) were assessed. Participants's ages ranged from 21 to 59 years (M = 36.2, SD = 9.93). It was found that soldiers and refugees exhibited the most pronounced PTSD symptomatology. Furthermore, women showed a higher mean IES avoidance score than men. Discriminant analysis revealed that group differences in coping measures can be described in terms of two discriminant functions. Compared with men, religious coping was more widely employed by women. Key words: war trauma, coping, intrusion, avoidance, hopelessness Kriegstraumen and ihre Folgen Ziel der Arbeit war es, an Uberlebenden des Bosnischen Burgerkriegs (1992 - 1995) gruppen- and geschlechtsspezifische Unterschiede in der Bewaltigung der Kriegstraumen zu untersuchen. An der Studie nahmen 46 Manner and 34 Frauen im Alter zwischen 21 and 59 Jahren teil. Die Stichprobe umfasste vier Gruppen: Soldaten and Soldatinnen, Landminenopfer, Fluchtlinge Bowie eine Vergleichsgruppe von Personen, die den Krieg in ihren Heimatorten iberlebten. Es zeigte sich, dass die Symptome einer posttraumatischen Belastungsstmrung bei SoldatInnen and Fluchtlingen am starksten ausgepragt warm. Ferner tendierten Frauen im starkeren Ausmass zur kognitiven Vermeidung als Manner. Die diskriminanzanalytischen Befunde machten deutlich, dass sich die Gruppenunterschiede im Bewiltigungsverhalten in einem zweidimensionalen Diskriminazraum darstellen lassen. Die diskriminazanalytische Auswertung der geschlechtsspezifischen Effekte ergab, dass im Vergleich zu den Mannern Frauen eher dazu neigten, bei der Bewaltigung ihrer traumatischen Kriegserlebnisse Halt in der Religion zu suchen. Schlusselworter: Kriegstraurna, Bewatigung, Intrusion, Vermeidung, Hoffnungslosigkeit Exposure to combat-related stress has been shown to result frequently in negative psychological outcomes. Especially studies of war veterans (e. g., Brewin, Andrews, & Valantine, 2000; Sharkansky et al., 2000) confirm that a large subset of individuals exposed to combat will develop symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) such as reexperiencing of the traumatic event, avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma, numbing of general responsiveness, and increased arousal (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). Mere trauma exposure, however, seems not always to be sufficient to explain the development of subsequent PTSD. A recently published meta-analysis revealed various risk factors (e. g., female gender, age, minority status, lack of education, adverse childhood, lack of social support) that consistently predicted PTSD to a varying extent in some populations but not in others (Brewin, Andrews, & Valentine, 2000). There is a large body of literature demonstrating the importance of coping with life stressors on psychological outcomes. However, only a limited number of studies examined the methods of coping used with war-related stressors and the events following the trauma. One of the first investigations on health, stress responses, and coping strategies of Bosnian refugees was conducted by Plante, Simicic, Andersen, and Manuel (2002). According to Lazarus (1993, p. 8), coping is defined as "a person's ongoing efforts in thought and action to manage specific demands appraised as taxing or overwhelming". There are two ways of coping: Problem-focused coping aims at changing a person's relationship with the environment by actions, and emotion-focused coping by which the person tries to alleviate the emotional distress by changing the interpretation of what is happening (Lazarus & Folkman, 1987). War-related stressors appear to be a particular kind of highly stressful life events that may be characterized by attributes such as unpredictability and uncontrollability, both causing the feeling of being overwhelmed and lost. …