Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies, NKVTS, Oslo, Norway.
Department of Education, University of Tromsø, The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway.
Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2019 Mar;28(3):319-328. doi: 10.1007/s00787-018-1196-y. Epub 2018 Jul 12.
Terrorist attacks and mass shootings often involve youth. Knowledge is needed on how this may impact their health and functioning. This study investigates perceived academic performance and school wellbeing in 237 terror-exposed survivors of the Utøya youth camp attack according to their sociodemographic characteristics, health and mental health service (MHS) utilization. Semi-structured interviews were conducted after 4-5 and 14-15 months. The year following the attack, 143 (61%) survivors reported impaired academic performance and 66 (29%) impaired school wellbeing. Female survivors more often reported impaired performance. Non-Norwegian origin, being financially disadvantaged and less social support were associated with impaired wellbeing. Sleep problems, posttraumatic stress, anxiety/depression, somatic symptoms, and lower life satisfaction were associated with both impaired performance and impaired wellbeing. Survivors who had received MHS were more likely to report impaired or improved academic performance and school wellbeing. Higher age and posttraumatic stress reactions were associated with impaired academic performance after multivariate logistic regression adjustments for gender, somatic symptoms and social support. When additionally adjusting for impaired school wellbeing, age and impaired wellbeing were associated with impaired performance. Only posttraumatic stress reactions were associated with impaired wellbeing after similar adjustments. Non-Norwegian origin and being financially disadvantaged were not significantly associated with impaired wellbeing after adjusting for posttraumatic stress reactions, age and gender. Our findings demonstrate how a terrorist attack can considerably deteriorate young survivors' performance and wellbeing at school, which is associated with poorer health. Consequently, it is important to provide appropriate school support, and coordinate MHS with follow-up at school.
恐怖袭击和大规模枪击事件经常涉及年轻人。需要了解这可能如何影响他们的健康和功能。本研究根据社会人口特征、健康和心理健康服务 (MHS) 使用情况，调查了乌托亚青年营袭击事件中 237 名恐怖袭击幸存者的感知学业表现和学校幸福感。在 4-5 个月和 14-15 个月后进行了半结构化访谈。袭击发生后的那一年，143 名（61%）幸存者报告学业表现受损，66 名（29%）报告学校幸福感受损。女性幸存者更常报告表现受损。非挪威血统、经济劣势和较少的社会支持与较差的幸福感有关。睡眠问题、创伤后应激、焦虑/抑郁、躯体症状和较低的生活满意度与表现和幸福感受损均相关。接受 MHS 的幸存者更有可能报告学业表现和学校幸福感受损或改善。多元逻辑回归调整性别、躯体症状和社会支持后，较高的年龄和创伤后应激反应与学业表现受损相关。当进一步调整学校幸福感受损时，年龄和较差的幸福感与表现受损相关。仅创伤后应激反应与调整后的幸福感受损相关。在调整创伤后应激反应、年龄和性别后，非挪威血统和经济劣势与较差的幸福感并无显著关联。我们的研究结果表明，恐怖袭击如何极大地恶化年轻幸存者在学校的表现和幸福感，这与健康状况较差有关。因此，提供适当的学校支持，并协调 MHS 与学校随访非常重要。
