Trauma symptoms in children after the tsunami

Abstract

Limited research has examined factors associated with psychological distress following natural disasters among non-Western child populations. Conditions associated with trauma-related symptoms following the 2004 tsunami in a sample of 265 SriLankan child survivors (53.6% female, aged 3 to 17)were examined retrospectively. Multivariate regression analyses identified pre-traumatic conditions (female gender, prior health) and peritraumatic conditions (loss of family, complete property loss) as being associated with increased trauma-related symptoms. Findings can be applied to the identification of children most at risk of developing trauma-related symptoms following a natural disaster from a non-Western population to aid development of culturally-appropriate interventions.