title: Posttraumatic stress among young urban children exposed to family violence and other potentially traumatic events.
abstract: This study examines the relationship between the number of types of traumatic events experienced by children 3 to 6 years old, parenting stress, and children's posttraumatic stress (PTS). Parents and caregivers provided data for 154 urban children admitted into community-based mental health or developmental services. By parent and caregiver report, children experienced an average of 4.9 different types of potentially traumatic events. Nearly one quarter of the children evidenced clinically significant PTS. Posttraumatic stress was positively and significantly related to family violence and other family-related trauma exposure, nonfamily violence and trauma exposure, and parenting stress. Additionally, parenting stress partially mediated the relationship between family violence and trauma exposure and PTS. This study highlights the need for early violence and trauma exposure screening in help-seeking populations so that appropriate interventions are initiated.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Division of Prevention and Community Research, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA. cindy.crusto@yale.edu
authors.forename: Cindy A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Crusto
authors.forename: Melissa L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Whitson
authors.forename: Sherry M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Walling
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Feinn
authors.forename: Stacey R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Friedman
authors.forename: Jesse
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Reynolds
authors.forename: Mona
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Amer
authors.forename: Joy S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Kaufman
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000295:instrumentation; D009511:New England / Q000453:epidemiology; D011203:Poverty; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D014505:Urban Population; D014754:Violence