Trauma symptoms in children after the tsunami

NOTE CORRECTION: On 13th March 2014, the affiliation of author Charini Gunaratne was changed from Casual Academic, School of Psychology, Deakin University, Australia TO Sessional Academic, School of Psychology, Deakin University Australia and Lecturer, School of Psychology, Charles Sturt University, Australia

On 13th March 2014, the affiliation of author Andrew J Lewis was changed from esearch Academic in Clinical Psychology, School of Psychology, Deakin University, Australia TO Associate Professor, School of Psychology, Deakin University, Australia

Abstract:

Limited research has examined factors associated with psychological distress following natural disasters among non-Western child populations. Conditions associated with trauma-related symptoms following the 2004 tsunami in a sample of 265 Sri Lankan child survivors (53.6% female, aged 3 to 17) were examined retrospectively. Multivariate regression analyses identified pre-traumatic conditions (female gender, prior health) and peri-traumatic conditions (loss of family, complete property loss) as being associated with increased trauma-related symptoms. Findings can be applied to the identification of children most at risk of developing trauma-related symptoms following a natural disaster from a non-Western population to aid development of culturally-appropriate interventions.

Sri Lanka Journal of Child Health, 2013; 42: 192-199

(Key words: children; adolescents; traumatic symptoms; tsunami; Sri Lanka)

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/sljch.v42i4.6262