Psychology Commons^™

Posttraumatic Stress Among Young Urban Children Exposed To Family Violence And Other Potentially Traumatic Events, Cindy A. Crusto, Melissa L. Whitson, Sherry M. Walling, Richard Feinn, Stacey R. Friedman, Jesse Reynolds, Mona Amer, Joy S. Kaufman

Psychology Faculty Publications

This study examines the relationship between the number of types of traumatic events experienced by children 3 to 6 years old, parenting stress, and children's posttraumatic stress (PTS). Parents and caregivers provided data for 154 urban children admitted into community-based mental health or developmental services. By parent and caregiver report, children experienced an average of 4.9 different types of potentially traumatic events. Nearly one quarter of the children evidenced clinically significant PTS. Posttraumatic stress was positively and significantly related to family violence and other family-related trauma exposure, nonfamily violence and trauma exposure, and parenting stress. Additionally, parenting stress partially mediated …