Traumatic Childhood Experiences in the 21st Century

Abstract

The study objectives were to (a) examine the association between total number of trauma types experienced and child/adolescent behavioral problems and (b) determine whether the number of trauma types experienced predicted youth behavioral problems above and beyond demographic characteristics, using a diverse set of 20 types of trauma. Data came from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network's (NCTSN) Core Data Set (CDS), which includes youth assessed and treated for trauma across the United States. Participants who experienced at least one type of trauma were included in the sample (N = 11,028; age = 1½-18 years; 52.3% girls). Random effects models were used to account for possible intraclass correlations given treatment services were provided at different NCTSN centers. Logistic regression analyses were used to investigate associations among demographic characteristics, trauma, and emotional and behavioral problems as measured by the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). Significant dose-response relations were found between total number of trauma types and behavior problems for all CBCL scales, except Sleep, one of the subscales only administered to 1½- to 5-year-olds. Thus, each additional trauma type endorsed significantly increased the odds for scoring above the clinical threshold. Results provide further evidence of strong associations between diverse traumatic childhood experiences and a diverse range of behavior problems, and underscore the need for a trauma-informed public health and social welfare approach to prevention, risk reduction, and early intervention for traumatized youth.

Trauma Exposure in Elementary School Children: Description of Screening Procedures, Level of Exposure, and Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms

“…Notably, over one-third of children exposed to a traumatic event endorsed symptoms in the clinical range that suggests potential diagnosis of PTSD (36.5%; 9.5% of the entire screened sample); this approaches the overall rate of PTSD in a recent meta-analysis of children and adolescents (Alisic, van Wesel, Larsen, Hafstad, Hassanpour, & Smid, 2014). Results of this study are also consistent with previous studies indicating that exposure to multiple events was associated with increased posttraumatic stress severity (Greeson et al, 2014; Suliman et al, 2009). In this study, symptom severity did not systematically increase with age, suggesting that younger trauma-exposed children reported similar levels of distress than their older schoolmates.…”

Perceptions of Trauma and Loss among Children and Adolescents Exposed to Disasters a Mixed-Methods Study

“…Findings related to dose-response effects in the context of disasters, as well as the cumulative impact of disasters, are consistent with the broader research on stress and trauma suggesting that multiple exposure increases risk for emotional, behavioral, and cognitive problems (Briere et al 2008;Enlow et al 2013;Greeson et al 2014). Such exposure in childhood may be particularly detrimental.…”

“…Once all responses had been coded, we grouped the initial codes into a set of five broader, organizing themes of trauma and loss (Bradlee et al 2007; see Table 1). In doing so, we studied the meaning of each code and related meanings between codes by comparing and contrasting the perspectives of multiple participants with reports in each coding category and utilizing prior theory about adverse experiences in childhood and adolescence (Greeson et al 2014). The large and diverse sample size meant that themes were based on the perspectives of at least 40 youth of different genders, ages, and ethnicities.…”

“…Investigation of intervening trauma and loss among multiple disaster-exposed youth is important for understanding long-term recovery from disasters, wherein effects unfold over time and additional events may interact with outcomes of risk or resilience. In addition, identifying the effects of exposure to different types of disasters as well as additional trauma and loss is important given that much of the extant research on large samples of youth experiencing cumulative adversity has collapsed different types of trauma into a global score (Dierkhising et al 2013;Greeson et al 2014). The nature and extent of exposure to additional trauma and loss among disaster-exposed youth is not yet fully understood due to limitations in study designs (Pfefferbaum et al 2013).…”

The Dissociative Subtype of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Among Adolescents: Co-Occurring PTSD, Depersonalization/Derealization, and Other Dissociation Symptoms

“…Additional information about the CDS is reported elsewhere. 28, 29 A subset of the full CDS was selected for this study. Individuals in the CDS were included in the subset if they were adolescents ages 12 to 16, had baseline data available, experienced at least one type of trauma exposure, and were not missing assessments of PTSD and dissociation.…”