title: Maternal posttraumatic stress disorder symptom trajectories following Hurricane Katrina: An initial examination of the impact of maternal trajectories on the well-being of disaster-exposed youth.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study examined trajectories of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms in impoverished mothers impacted by Hurricane Katrina, as well as how predictive the maternal trajectories were for youth posttraumatic stress symptoms 2 years post-Katrina.
  
  
  METHODS
  360 mother participants displaced by Hurricane Katrina completed self-report measures across four time points related to Hurricane exposure, trauma history, and posttraumatic stress symptoms. Additionally, the youth offspring completed a self-report measure of posttraumatic stress symptoms.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Latent Class Growth Analysis demonstrated three primary trajectories emerged among females impacted by Katrina, namely, (1) chronic (4 %), (2) recovering (30 %), and (3) resilient (66 %), respectively. These trajectories were significantly impacted by prior trauma history, but not hurricane exposure. Additionally, data indicated that children whose parents fell into the chronic PTS trajectory also reported high levels of PTS symptoms.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study identified three main trajectories typical of female PTS symptoms following disaster and was the first known study to document associations between PTS outcomes among adults and their offspring impacted by a large natural disaster. Future research is warranted and should explore additional risk and protective factors that impact both the parental and child outcomes.
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, Georgia State University, P.O. Box 3995, Atlanta, GA, 30302, United States of America, sselfbrown@gsu.edu.
authors.forename: Shannon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Self-Brown
authors.forename: Betty S
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Lai
authors.forename: Shannon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Harbin
authors.forename: Mary Lou
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Kelley
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D055867:Cyclonic Storms; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002666:Psychology, Child / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055500:Resilience, Psychological; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000453:epidemiology*; D013997:Time Factors