title: Urban Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children's exposure to stressful events: a cross-sectional study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the frequency and types of stressful events experienced by urban Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, and to explore the relationship between these experiences and the children's physical health and parental concerns about their behaviour and learning ability.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional study of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children aged ≤ 14 2013s presenting to an urban Indigenous primary health care service in Brisbane for annual child health checks between March 2007 and March 2010.
  
  
  METHODS
  Parental or carer report of stressful events ever occurring in the family that may have affected the child.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of 344 participating children, 175 (51%) had experienced at least one stressful event. Reported events included the death of a family member or close friend (40; 23%), parental divorce or separation (28; 16%), witness to violence or abuse (20; 11%), or incarceration of a family member (7; 4%). These children were more likely to have parents or carers concerned about their behaviour (P < 0.001) and to have a history of ear (P < 0.001) or skin (P = 0.003) infections.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Children who had experienced stressful events had poorer physical health and more parental concern about behavioural 1s than those who had not. Parental disclosure in the primary health care setting of stressful events that have affected the child necessitates appropriate medical, psychological or social interventions to ameliorate both the immediate and potential lifelong negative impact. However, treating the impact of stressful events is insufficient without dealing with the broader political and societal 1s that result in a clustering of stressful events in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population.
authors.affiliation: Discipline of General Practice, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia. d.askew@uq.edu.au
authors.forename: Deborah A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Askew
authors.forename: Philip J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Schluter
authors.forename: Geoffrey K P
authors.initials: GK
authors.lastname: Spurling
authors.forename: Chelsea J R
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Bond
authors.forename: Alex D H
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Brown
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001315:Australia; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000208:ethnology; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology; D014504:Urban Health / Q000208:ethnology*