The Effects of a Natural Disaster on Child Behavior: Evidence for Posttraumatic Stress

Author(s)
Durkin, M. S., Khan, N., Davidson, L. L., Zaman, S. S. and Stein, Z. A.
Publication language
English
Pages
4pp
Date published
01 Nov 1993
Type
Articles
Keywords
Children & youth, Disasters, Floods & landslides
Countries
Bangladesh

A prospective study of children examined both before and after a flood disaster in Bangladesh is used to test the hypothesis that stressful events play a causal role in the development of behavioral disorders in children. METHODS. Six months before the disaster, structured measures of selected behavioral problems were made during an epidemiological study of disability among 2- to 9-year-old children. Five months after the disaster, a representative sample of 162 surviving children was reevaluated. RESULTS. Between the pre- and post flood assessments, the prevalence of aggressive behavior increased from zero to nearly 10%, and 45 of the 134 children who had bladder control before the flood (34%) developed enuresis. CONCLUSIONS. These results help define what may be considered symptoms of posttraumatic distress in childhood; they also contribute to mounting evidence of the need to develop and evaluate interventions aimed at ameliorating the behavioral and psychological consequences of children's exposure to extreme and traumatic situations.


Read More: http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.83.11.1549