@article{ref1,
title="Social connectedness: A potential aetiological factor in the development of child post-traumatic stress disorder",
journal="Australian and New Zealand journal of psychiatry",
year="2012",
author="McDermott, Brett and Berry, Helen and Cobham, Vanessa",
volume="46",
number="2",
pages="109-117",
abstract="Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate a new social connectedness factor and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in children who experienced a cyclone disaster. Method: Three months post-disaster school-based screening for PTSD was conducted. 804 children (mean age=10.22 years, SD=1.24) participated. 12.0% of children reported severe or very severe PTSD symptoms. Results: Low connected children, adjusted for age, gender and independent of cyclone exposure and threat perception, were 3.96 times more likely to experience severe to very severe PTSD. A structural model of child PTSD indicated that connectedness was the most important factor explaining variance in children's symptomatology. The final model accounted for 60% of the variance of child PTSD scores. Conclusions: We conclude that child connectedness is a new, significant, independent factor in a model of post-disaster child PTSD. Connectedness may represent a vulnerability factor that can be targeted preventatively in children in disaster-prone regions. Conversely, a pre-disaster intervention that helps children develop high connectedness may have the potential to confer resilience.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0004-8674",
doi="10.1177/0004867411433950",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0004867411433950"
}