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Nightmares in Treatment-Seeking Youth: the Role of Cumulative Trauma Exposure

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Abstract

Although nightmares are frequently endorsed symptoms in children who have experienced trauma, limited research has been conducted on how nightmares vary with different forms of trauma exposure. Our goal was to assess the relationship between nightmares, trauma exposure, and symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in youth. A total of 4440 trauma exposed treatment-seeking youth (ages 7 to 18) were administered the UCLA PTSD Reaction Index. Different trauma types, total traumas experienced, and PTSD symptoms were analyzed with correlations and a logistic regression in relation to nightmare frequency. Overall, 33.1% of participants reported experiencing clinically-significant nightmares. 79.1% of the sample experienced more than one trauma type, with an average of 3.06 trauma types endorsed. A binary logistic regression demonstrated the odds of reporting clinically-significant nightmares increased by 1.3 times for every additional type of trauma experienced. Lastly, nightmares were positively correlated with all PTSD criterion. The current study provides prevalence rates of trauma exposure and nightmares in a large, statewide sample of treatment-seeking youth. Each new trauma type experienced resulted in a greater likelihood of endorsing clinically-significant nightmares. This study provides useful information related to assessing and addressing nightmares in youth who have experienced trauma.

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Author notes

  1. Marie E. Secrist

    Present address: San Diego Center for Children, San Diego, CA, USA

  2. Shannon L. Harper

    Present address: Albany Medical Center, Albany, NY, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Psychiatric Research Institute, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR, USA

    Marie E. Secrist, Sufna G. John, Shannon L. Harper, Benjamin A. Sigel, Chad Sievers & Teresa Kramer

  2. Department of Family and Preventative Medicine, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR, USA

    Nicola A. Conners Edge

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  1. Marie E. Secrist
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Correspondence to Marie E. Secrist.

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Ethical Standards and Informed Consent

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation [institutional and national] and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. These data were collected as part of a program evaluation of ARBEST approved through the UAMS IRB. The UAMS IRB approved a waiver of informed consent for this study.

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Secrist, M.E., John, S.G., Harper, S.L. et al. Nightmares in Treatment-Seeking Youth: the Role of Cumulative Trauma Exposure. Journ Child Adol Trauma 13, 249–256 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40653-019-00268-y

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