Posttraumatic Stress Two Years after the Oklahoma City Bombing in Youths Geographically Distant from the Explosion

Abstract

This article describes Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptomatology in 69 sixth-grade youths who resided within 100 miles of Oklahoma City at the time of the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. These youths neither had any direct physical exposure nor personally knew anyone killed or injured in the explosion. A survey conducted two years after the bombing assessed exposure, PTSD symptoms, and functioning. PTSD symptom frequency was measured with the Impact of Event Scale--Revised. Our BCD criteria for defining PTSD caseness was modeled after DSM-IV B, C, and D criteria requiring one reexperiencing, three avoidance/numbing, and two arousal symptoms for diagnosis. Those who met our BCD criteria had significantly higher PTSD symptom scores than those who did not. Both increased mean PTSD symptom score and meeting our caseness definition were associated with increased functioning difficulties. Media exposure and indirect interpersonal exposure (having a friend who knew someone killed or injured) were significant predictors of symptomatology. These findings suggest that children geographically distant from disaster who have not directly experienced an interpersonal loss report PTSD symptoms and functional impairment associated with increased media exposure and indirect loss.

Psychological Distress among Adolescents in Chengdu, Sichuan at 1 Month after the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake

“…10 Previous studies identified a number of factors in association with mental health status of people living in proximity to a disaster site, including severity of the disaster, level of exposure to the disaster, human and material loss to the family, perceived social support, adversity experienced by one's family members and/or acquaintance, personal links with someone living in the affected areas, whether one experienced the disaster in solitude, and one's proximity to the epicenter of the disasters. [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] In addition, viewing television images of disasters exacerbate PTSD and depression among persons directly affected by disasters. 19 Though no casualties or damaged buildings were reported in the downtown area of Chengdu, the capital city of the Sichuan Province, the city is only about 90 km away from the epicenter of the earthquake and is only 39 km away from Dujiangyan, where 3,091 deaths were reported.…”

Exposure and Peritraumatic Response as Predictors of Posttraumatic Stress in Children Following the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing

“…Television coverage has also been implicated. [16][17][18][19][20] Combined forms of exposure may increase risk. For example, March and colleagues 11 found that posttraumatic stress symptomatology resulted from direct visual exposure and from indirect exposure through nonwitnessed harm to relatives and/or close friends in children 9 months after exposure to an industrial fire.…”

Parental response and adolescent adjustment to the september 11, 2001 terrorist attacks

“…Mass media coverage of such events may expand their impact to youths not directly exposed (Pfefferbaum et al, 2000). National studies found that many adults (Silver, Holman, McIntosh, Poulin, & Gil-Rivas, 2002) and adolescents (Ford, Udry, Gleiter, & Chatala, 2003) reported event-related symptoms even 6-months later.…”