Child Trajectories of Post-Traumatic Stress After Natural Disasters
Child Trajectories of Post-Traumatic Stress After Natural Disasters
Project Summary
This project synthesized data across multiple studies of children's post-disaster outcomes to understand patterns (i.e., trajectories) of post-traumatic stress symptom responses and the risk factors for these patterns. The project had two specific aims:
- To develop an integrative data analysis framework and use it to analyze data pooled from four studies of children's mental health outcomes after hurricanes
- To identify trajectories of children's post-hurricane post-traumatic stress symptoms and the risk factors that are associated with these trajectories.
The results of this study can be helpful for guiding early identification of children at higher risk of persistent post-traumatic stress symptoms after disasters. The results can also provide helpful information for implementing stepped care post-disaster intervention models.
Approach
Integrative data analysis (IDA) was used as the overarching methodological framework. As part of this analysis, individual level data from four studies were integrated, creating a pooled data source that allowed for more powerful analyses. These pooled data were analyzed using latent class growth analyses to evaluate post-traumatic stress symptom trajectories and associated factors.
Measurement & Metrics
Post-traumatic stress symptoms were measured using the UCLA PTSD-RI and the UCLA PTSD-RI-Revised. Student demographic information was also collected.
Data Collection
The data analyzed for this study was pooled from studies of children's mental health outcomes to four of the most costly disasters in U.S. history: Hurricane Andrew, Hurricane Charley, Hurricane Katrina, and Hurricane Ike.
3,245
Observations
1,653
Children
6 to 16
Age Range of Children
Key Findings
- Analyses identified four post-traumatic stress symptom trajectories: chronic, recovery, moderate-stable, and low-decreasing.
- The chronic trajectory was defined by high initial post-traumatic stress symptom scores that increased over time.
- The recovery trajectory was defined by initially high post-traumatic stress symptom scores that decreased over time.
- The moderate-stable trajectory was defined by moderate initial post-traumatic stress symptom scores that did not significantly change over time.
- The low-decreasing trajectory was defined by initially low post-traumatic stress symptom scores that significantly decreased over time.
- Younger age and identifying as female were risk factors that placed children at higher risk of falling in the chronic trajectory.