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Posttraumatic stress symptoms and structure among orphan and vulnerable children and adolescents in Zambia
Author(s) -
Familiar Itziar,
Murray Laura,
Gross Alden,
Skavenski Stephanie,
Jere Elizabeth,
Bass Judith
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
child and adolescent mental health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.912
H-Index - 46
eISSN - 1475-3588
pISSN - 1475-357X
DOI - 10.1111/camh.12050
Subject(s) - posttraumatic stress , latent class model , clinical psychology , structural equation modeling , psychology , psychiatry , medicine , mathematics , statistics
Background Scant information exists on posttraumatic stress disorder ( PTSD ) symptoms and structure in youth from developing countries. Methods We describe the symptom profile and exposure to trauma experiences among 343 orphan and vulnerable children and adolescents from Z ambia. We distinguished profiles of posttraumatic stress symptoms using latent class analysis. Results Average number of trauma‐related symptoms (21.6; range 0–38) was similar across sex and age. Latent class model suggested three classes varying by level of severity: low (31% of the sample), medium (45% of the sample), and high (24% of the sample) symptomatology. Conclusions Results suggest that PTSD is a continuously distributed latent trait.