Psychotrauma Center for Children and Youth, University Medical Center Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Clin Psychol Rev. 2011 Jul;31(5):736-47. doi: 10.1016/j.cpr.2011.03.001. Epub 2011 Mar 23.
Many children are exposed to traumatic events, with potentially serious psychological and developmental consequences. Therefore, understanding development of long-term posttraumatic stress in children is essential. We aimed to contribute to child trauma theory by focusing on theory use and theory validation in longitudinal studies. Forty studies measuring short-term predictors and long-term posttraumatic stress symptoms were identified and coded for theoretical grounding, sample characteristics, and correlational effect sizes. Explicit theoretical frameworks were present in a minority of the studies. Important predictors of long-term posttraumatic stress were symptoms of acute and short-term posttraumatic stress, depression, anxiety, and parental posttraumatic stress. Female gender, injury severity, duration of hospitalization, and elevated heart rate shortly after hospitalization yielded small effect sizes. Age, minority status, and socioeconomic status were not significantly related to long-term posttraumatic stress reactions. Since many other variables were not studied frequently enough to compute effect sizes, existing theoretical frameworks could only be partially confirmed or falsified. Child trauma theory-building can be facilitated by development of encouraging journal policies, the use of comparable methods, and more intense collaboration.
许多儿童经历创伤事件，可能会对其心理和发展产生严重后果。因此，了解儿童长期创伤后应激的发展至关重要。我们旨在通过关注纵向研究中的理论使用和验证来促进儿童创伤理论的发展。确定并编码了 40 项研究，以测量短期预测因素和长期创伤后应激症状，这些研究涉及理论基础、样本特征和相关效应量。少数研究中存在明确的理论框架。长期创伤后应激的重要预测因素是急性和短期创伤后应激症状、抑郁、焦虑和父母创伤后应激。女性、伤害严重程度、住院时间和住院后心率升高与较小的效应量相关。年龄、少数族裔身份和社会经济地位与长期创伤后应激反应无显著关系。由于许多其他变量没有被充分研究以计算效应量，因此现有的理论框架只能部分得到证实或证伪。通过制定鼓励期刊政策、使用可比方法和加强合作，可以促进儿童创伤理论的发展。
