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A Prospective Study on the Association Between Caregiver Psychological Symptomatology and Symptom Clusters of Pediatric Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Author(s) -
Wong Shane Shucheng,
Kletter Hilit,
Wong Yukwal,
Carrion Victor G.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of traumatic stress
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.259
H-Index - 134
eISSN - 1573-6598
pISSN - 0894-9867
DOI - 10.1002/jts.21816
Subject(s) - somatization , psychology , anxiety , psychoticism , hostility , clinical psychology , suicidal ideation , psychiatry , anxiety disorder , depression (economics) , poison control , medicine , injury prevention , personality , social psychology , environmental health , macroeconomics , big five personality traits , economics , extraversion and introversion
This study investigated the influence of caregiver psychological symptoms on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in traumatized children. One‐hundred eleven children and caretakers were assessed in this study. Children ( N = 59) with a history of exposure to interpersonal violence were evaluated for reexperiencing, avoidance/numbing, and hyperarousal symptom clusters using the Clinician‐Administered PTSD Scale for Children and Adolescents (CAPS‐CA). The 52 primary caregivers were evaluated using the Symptom Checklist‐90‐Revised (SCL‐90‐R) on 9 domains of psychological symptomatology: anxiety, depression, hostility, interpersonal sensitivity, obsessive–compulsive disorder, paranoid ideation, phobic anxiety, psychoticism, and somatization. At 14‐month follow‐up, 45 of the children were re‐evaluated with the CAPS‐CA. Caregiver psychological symptoms in the domains of anxiety, depression, interpersonal sensitivity, obsessive–compulsive disorder, and paranoid ideation were associated with less improvement in total pediatric PTSD symptoms. Analysis of PTSD symptoms by cluster showed that greater caregiver symptomatology in the domains of anxiety, depression, interpersonal sensitivity, and obsessive–compulsive disorder were associated with less improvement in the hyperarousal symptom cluster. These results suggest caregiver symptomatology may be specifically associated with hyperarousal symptoms in pediatric trauma.