Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, OK, USA.
Prehosp Disaster Med. 2012 Jun;27(3):272-9. doi: 10.1017/S1049023X12000702. Epub 2012 Jun 13.
Exposure to mass trauma has contributed to increasing concern about the well-being of children, families, and communities. In spite of global awareness of the dramatic impact of mass trauma on youth, little is known about how children and adolescents cope with and adapt to disasters and terrorism. While coping has yet to be fully conceptualized as a unified construct, the process of responding to stress includes recognized cognitive, emotional, and behavioral components. Unfortunately, research on the complex process of adaptation in the aftermath of mass trauma is a relatively recent focus. Further study is needed to build consensus in terminology, theory, methods, and assessment techniques to assist researchers and clinicians in measuring children's coping, both generally and within the context of mass trauma. Advancements are needed in the area of coping assessment to identify internal and external factors affecting children's stress responses. Additionally, enhanced understanding of children's disaster coping can inform the development of prevention and intervention programs to promote resilience in the aftermath of traumatic events. This article examines the theoretical and practical issues in assessing coping in children exposed to mass trauma, and includes recommendations to guide assessment and research of children's coping within this specialized context.
大规模创伤的暴露引发了人们对儿童、家庭和社区福祉的日益关注。尽管全球已经意识到大规模创伤对青年的巨大影响，但对于儿童和青少年如何应对和适应灾难和恐怖主义知之甚少。虽然应对尚未被完全概念化为一个统一的结构，但应对压力的过程包括公认的认知、情感和行为成分。不幸的是，对大规模创伤后复杂适应过程的研究是一个相对较新的焦点。需要进一步的研究来在术语、理论、方法和评估技术方面达成共识，以帮助研究人员和临床医生衡量儿童的应对能力，无论是一般情况下还是在大规模创伤的背景下。在应对评估领域需要取得进展，以确定影响儿童应激反应的内部和外部因素。此外，增强对儿童灾难应对能力的理解可以为预防和干预计划的制定提供信息，以促进创伤事件发生后的恢复力。本文探讨了评估暴露于大规模创伤的儿童应对能力的理论和实践问题，并提出了指导这一特殊背景下儿童应对能力评估和研究的建议。
