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Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Children and Adolescents

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Handbook of Developmental Psychopathology

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Abstract

Children experience traumatic events at rates similar to those of adults (Boney-McCoy & Finkelhor, 1995; Copeland, Keeler, Angold, & Costello, 2007; Kilpatrick et al., 2003). In contrast to the considerable literature on trauma exposure as well as the development, maintenance, and treatment of PTSD in adults, relatively little is known about the onset and course of this disorder in children and adolescents. In a large longitudinal study, about two-thirds (67.8 %) of children reported experiencing a traumatic event by the age of 16, and over 13 % of these children reported some posttraumatic stress symptoms (Copeland et al., 2007). Moreover, over half of the trauma-exposed children reported exposure to 2 or more traumatic events (Copeland et al., 2007). Hearing about or being confronted with traumatic news, witnessing a traumatic event (e.g., witnessing parental violence), and experiencing violence (e.g., physical abuse) appear to be the most common traumatic events reported by children and adolescents (e.g., Copeland et al., 2007; Luthra et al., 2009). Childhood sexual abuse appears to be less common, with a national survey estimate suggesting that 13.5 % of females and 2.5 % of males report being sexually abused before the age of 18 (Molnar, Buka, & Kessler, 2001). Despite high rates of trauma exposure, in a national sample of children and adolescents aged 12–17 years old, 3.7 % of males and 6.3 % of females met criteria for a DSM-IV diagnosis of PTSD (Kilpatrick et al., 2003). Thus, trauma exposure, often exposure to multiple events, is common among individuals of all ages, and a small subset of these individuals develops PTSD.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA

    Stephanie M. Keller M.A. & Norah C. Feeny Ph.D.

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  1. Stephanie M. Keller M.A.
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  2. Norah C. Feeny Ph.D.
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Correspondence to Stephanie M. Keller M.A. .

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  1. Institute for the Study of Child Development, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA

    Michael Lewis

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, Illinois, USA

    Karen D. Rudolph

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Keller, S.M., Feeny, N.C. (2014). Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Children and Adolescents. In: Lewis, M., Rudolph, K. (eds) Handbook of Developmental Psychopathology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9608-3_38

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