Abstract
Background/ObjectivesPost-traumatic stress disorder is a common psychological maladaptation among adolescents after undergoing an earthquake. Knowledge about the prevalence and maintenance of post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms and the changes of its predictors over time can help medical providers assist adolescent survivors with mitigating long-term impacts. This study examined the changes in posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and its relationship with coping skill and locus of control among adolescent earthquake survivors in China.Methodology/FindingsThe study used an observational longitudinal design. A total of 1420 adolescents were evaluated twice after the earthquake by using the Post-traumatic stress disorder Checklist-Civilian Version, The Internality, Powerful others and Chance scale and the Coping Styles Scale. The results indicated that the mean scores of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms were decreased significantly and the positive rates of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms also declined remarkably at 17 months compared to the 3 months post-earthquake. Internality locus of control and problem solving coping skill were effective resilient factors for the development and maintenance of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms, while chance locus of control was a powerful risk factor of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms as well as being female, being injured and property loss.Conclusions/SignificanceContinuous screening is recommended to identify adolescent earthquake survivors with posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms. More attention should be paid to adolescent survivors who are prone to adopt passive coping strategies responding to trauma events and who own external causal attribution.
Highlights
Catastrophic earthquakes are seemingly occurring more and more frequently around the world
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a relatively common and complex psychiatric disorder experienced by earthquake survivors
In order to guarantee equivalent and unbiased sampling for further meaningful comparisons on the target variables in the present study, independent-sample t test was performed on age, scores of PTSD symptoms and locus of control, and Chi-square test was adopted for comparison on gender and earthquake exposure between both assessing participants and missing participants
Summary
Catastrophic earthquakes are seemingly occurring more and more frequently around the world. Some earthquakes can lead to considerable losses in economic and social property, as well as create unaccountable personal or emotional loss. Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a relatively common and complex psychiatric disorder experienced by earthquake survivors. PTSD is characterized by three symptom clusters that include re-experiencing, avoidance and numbing, and increased emotional arousal [1]. Several studies suggest that PTSD symptoms are common among earthquake survivors, and powerful earthquakes that cause thousands of casualties can have long-term physical and psychological consequences on survivors [2,3,4]. Few studies have examined the longitudinal course of PTSD among earthquake survivors [5,6], especially adolescent survivors [7,8]
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