TY - JOUR
PY - 2023//
TI - Community trauma exposure and post-traumatic stress disorder in Chinese children and adolescents
JO - Frontiers in psychiatry
A1 - Yuan, Ting
A1 - Li, Xiangdong
A1 - Liu, Haiyang
A1 - Guo, Lei-Lei
A1 - Li, Jin-Long
A1 - Xu, Guang
A1 - Li, Xiaoping
A1 - Sun, Lu
A1 - Wang, Congzhi
A1 - Yang, Liu
A1 - Zhang, Dongmei
A1 - Hua, Ying
A1 - Lei, Yunxiao
A1 - Zhang, Lin
SP - e1151631
EP - e1151631
VL - 14
IS -
N2 - BACKGROUND: An increasing number of studies have shown the association between traumatic events occurring in childhood and adolescence and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A gap remains in the literature on the epidemiology and influencing factors of traumatic events and post-traumatic stress disorder in communities in northern China. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of traumatic events and PTSD in communities in northern China, to explore the types of stressful traumatic events and the impact of these traumatic events on children and adolescents, and to investigate the effect of sociodemographic factors on PTSD.
METHODS: A cross-sectional survey study was conducted among 6,027 students (7-17 years old) from 6 cities in Liaoning Province, China. The sample consisted of 2,853 males (47.34%) and 3,174 females (52.66%). The Essen Trauma-Inventory for Children and Adolescents (ETI-CA) Scale was used. The ETI-CA has 5 sections, which include type of traumatic events, worst traumatic event, post-traumatic symptoms, onset, duration, burden of PTSD, and present difficulties in different areas of life. PTSD symptoms were assessed with 23 items in Part 3 of the ETI-CA.
RESULTS: We found that 2,068 (34.3%) of 6,027 participants experienced trauma events and 686 (33.2%) of 2,068 reported PTSD. Among trauma-exposed youth (2,068), the sudden death of close relatives (33.9%), serious accidents (20.9%), and parental divorce (15.5%) were reported as the worst traumatic events. Studies have shown that after exposure to stressful life events, more than 30% of people feel nervous or upset (39.8%), scared (33.4%), helpless (32.6%), and about 10% have headaches (15.5%), rapid heartbeat (13.3%), and dizziness (11.8%). Multivariable logistic regression analyses showed that students in middle school [OR = 1.29 (1.016, 1.637)], not a student leader [OR = 0.738 (0.618, 0.881)], and their parents in single marital status significantly predicted higher PTSD prevalence the remarried [OR = 0.474 (0.252, 0.893)], married [OR = 0.42 (0.227, 0.778)].
CONCLUSION: The present study suggests the government to train psychological counselors in schools and communities to provide emotional and psychological support, as well as the school leaders and parents to elevate adolescents' psychological suzhi. Particularly, counseling and professional support should be given to those students whose parents are single.
Language: en
LA - en SN - 1664-0640 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1151631 ID - ref1 ER -