title: Relationships between traumatic symptoms and environmental damage conditions among children 8 months after the 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To evaluate relationships between traumatic symptoms and environmental damage conditions among children who survived the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami.
  
  
  METHODS
  The subjects were 12,524 children in kindergartens, elementary schools, and junior high schools in Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. The Post Traumatic Stress Symptoms for Children 15 items (PTSSC-15), a self-completion questionnaire on traumatic symptoms, was distributed to the children and a questionnaire regarding environmental damage conditions affecting the children was distributed to their teachers. Of 12,524 questionnaires distributed, an effective response was obtained from 11,692 (93.3%).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The PTSSC-15 score was significantly higher in females than in males among 4(th) to 6(th) grade students in elementary schools and among junior high school students. In terms of traumatic symptoms and environmental damage conditions, with the exception of kindergartners, children who had their houses damaged or experienced separation from family members had a significantly higher PTSSC-15 score than children who did not experience environmental damage. Except for kindergartners and 4(th)- to 6(th)-grade elementary school students, children who experienced evacuation had a significantly higher PTSSC-15 score.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study demonstrated relationships between traumatic symptoms and environmental damage conditions in children who had suffered from the disaster. Factors examined in studying the relationship between environmental damage conditions and traumatic symptoms were gender, age, house damage, evacuation experience, and bereavement experience. It was critical not only to examine the traumatic symptoms of the children but also to collect accurate information about environmental damage conditions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, National Center for Global Health and Medicine, Kohnodai Hospital, Ichikawa, Japan. usami.masahide@gmail.com
authors.forename: Masahide
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Usami
authors.forename: Yoshitaka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Iwadare
authors.forename: Masaki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kodaira
authors.forename: Kyota
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Watanabe
authors.forename: Momoko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aoki
authors.forename: Chiaki
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Katsumi
authors.forename: Kumi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Matsuda
authors.forename: Kazunori
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Makino
authors.forename: Sonoko
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Iijima
authors.forename: Maiko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Harada
authors.forename: Hiromi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: Yoshinori
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sasaki
authors.forename: Tetsuya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: Hirokage
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ushijima
authors.forename: Kazuhiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Saito
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001601:Bereavement; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D055866:Earthquakes; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000175:diagnosis*; D013334:Students; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D057192:Tsunamis