Background: Previous studies have found that the postdisaster developmental course of depression is more stable than that of other mental disorders among children and adolescents. However, the network structure and temporal stability of depressive symptoms after natural disasters among children and adolescents remain unknown. Objective: This study aims to understand the depressive symptom network and evaluate its temporal stability among children and adolescents after natural disasters. Methods: Three-wave measurements were conducted among 1,466 children and adolescents at 3, 15, and 27 months following the Zhouqu debris flow. Depressive symptoms were evaluated by the Child Depression Inventory (CDI), which was dichotomised to signify the presence or absence of depressive symptoms. Depression networks were estimated with the Ising model, and expected influence was used to assess node centrality. A network comparison test was used to test the differences in the depression networks among the three temporal points. Results: Overall, the depressive symptom network was temporally stable regarding symptom centrality and global connectivity over the two-year study period. Self-hate, loneliness, and sleep disturbance were central symptoms and had low variability in the depressive networks at the three temporal points. Crying and self-deprecation had large temporal variability in centrality. Conclusion: The present study provides the first evidence for the temporal stability of the youth depressive symptom network postdisaster. The similar central symptoms and connectivity of depression symptoms at different temporal points after natural disasters may partially explain the stable prevalence and developmental trajectory of depression. Self-hate, loneliness, and sleep disturbance could be central characteristics, and sleep disturbance and reduced appetite, sadness and crying, and misbehaviour and disobedience could be key associations in the endurance of depression among children and adolescents after experiencing a natural disaster.

Background: Children and adolescents are likely to be exposed to various types of childhood traumatic experiences (CTEs) with gender-specific patterns. Rural-to-urban migrant children have been demonstrated a greater risk of CTE exposure than local children. However, no study has investigated sex differences in the patterns of CTEs and predictive factors among Chinese children. Methods: A large-scale questionnaire survey of rural-to-urban migrant children (N = 16,140) was conducted among primary and junior high schools in Beijing. Childhood trauma history, including interpersonal violence, vicarious trauma, accidents and injuries was measured. Demographic variables and social support were also examined. Latent class analysis (LCA) was utilized to examine patterns of childhood trauma, and logistic regression was used to examine predictors. Results: Four classes of CTEs were found among both boys and girls, labeled low trauma exposure, vicarious trauma exposure, domestic violence exposure, and multiple trauma exposure. The possibility of various CTEs in the four CTE patterns was higher among boys than girls. Sex differences also manifested in predictors of childhood trauma patterns. Conclusions: Our findings shed light on sex differences in CTE patterns and predictive factors in Chinese rural-to-urban migrant children, suggesting that trauma history should be considered along with sex, and sex-specific prevention and treatment programs should be developed.