Different clinical courses of children exposed to a single incident of psychological trauma: a 30‐month prospective follow‐up study. (30th April 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hong, Soon‐Beom; Youssef, George J.; Song, Sook‐Hyung; Choi, Nam‐Hee; Ryu, Jeong; McDermott, Brett; Cobham, Vanessa; Park, Subin; Kim, Jae‐Won; Shin, Min‐Sup; Yoo, Hee‐Jeong; Cho, Soo‐Churl; Kim, Bung‐Nyun
• Is Part Of: Journal of child psychology and psychiatry and allied disciplines. Volume 55:Number 11(2014:Nov.)
• Page Start: 1226
• Page End: 1233
• Publication Date: 2014-04-30
• Subjects: Child psychology -- Periodicals; Child psychiatry -- Periodicals; 155.4
• DOI: 10.1111/jcpp.12241
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0021-9630

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" id="jcpp12241-abs-0001"> <title> <x xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <sec id="jcpp12241-sec-0001" sec-type="section"> <title>Background</title> <p>We investigated the distinct longitudinal trajectories of posttraumatic stress symptoms in a sample of 167 children, who witnessed death of two mothers of their schoolmates.</p> </sec> <sec id="jcpp12241-sec-0002" sec-type="section"> <title>Methods</title> <p>The cohort was followed‐up at 2 days (T1), 2 months (T2), 6 months (T3), and 30 months (T4) after the traumatic event. The children's posttraumatic stress symptoms (T1–T4), depression (T1, T3 and T4), state anxiety (T1, T3 and T4), and quality of life (T4) were assessed, along with parental stress related to child rearing (T4). Different trajectory patterns of the children's posttraumatic stress symptoms were identified using <italic>growth mixture modeling</italic> (GMM).</p> </sec> <sec id="jcpp12241-sec-0003" sec-type="section"> <title>Results</title> <p>Four different patterns of symptom change were identified, which were consistent with the prototypical model, and were named <italic>Recovery</italic> (19.9%), <italic>Resilience</italic> (72.7%), <italic>Chronic Dysfunction</italic> (1.8%), and <italic>Delayed Reactions</italic> (5.6%). Significant differences were found in depression and anxiety scores, children's quality of life, and parental rearing stress according to the distinct longitudinal trajectories of posttraumatic stress symptoms.</p> </sec> <sec id="jcpp12241-sec-0004" sec-type="section"> <title>Conclusions</title> <p>The present study suggests that individual differences should be taken into account in the clinical course and outcome of children exposed to psychological trauma. The two most common trajectories were the <italic>Resilience</italic> and the <italic>Recovery</italic> types, together suggesting that over 90% of children were evidenced with a favorable 30‐month outcome. The latent classes were associated with significant mean differences in depression and anxiety scores, supporting the clinical validity of the distinct trajectories.</p> </sec> </abstract>