Abstract
Background: Natural disasters may physically and psychologically affect individuals and their surrounding community. This study determines the prevalence of post-traumatic stress (PTS) symptoms and its association with maladaptive trauma-related cognition and resilience among adolescents post-earthquake.Materials and Methods: Data were collected, in this cross-sectional study, during an intervention program post-earthquake held in a state high school located at Lombok, Indonesia. The study sample engaged students 14–19 years of age using the purposive sampling method. The questionnaires used to measure PTS symptoms, maladaptive trauma-related cognition, and resilience were Children's Revised Impact of Event Scale-13 (CRIES-13), Child Post-Traumatic Cognitions Inventory (CPTCI), and Child and Youth Resilience Measure-Revised (CYRM-R), respectively.Results: The prevalence of PTS symptoms was 69.9%. Among the respondents, 61.37% were female and 56.48% had mothers with lower educational levels. Using multiple linear regression, the final predictors of PTS symptoms were excessive reactions (e.g., wailing loudly, miserable shrieking) of proxy during earthquake (β = 3.283, p = 0.005), maladaptive trauma-related cognition (β = 0.224, p = 0.002), and resilience (β = 0.192, p < 0.001) with female gender (β = 7.350, p < 0.001) as a control variable. Through simple linear regression, victims who witnessed injury or death during the earthquake (p = 0.003), had a proxy died during the earthquake (p = 0.01), and trapped victims or those who had difficulty escaping (p = 0.01) were identified to potentially predict the occurrence of PTS symptoms, warranting further study.Conclusion: The presence of excessive proxy reactions during the earthquake, maladaptive trauma-related cognition, and resilience in adolescents exposed to a natural disaster are worth targeting and prioritizing in future post-disaster interventions.
Highlights
Natural disasters have physical and psychological impacts on individuals and their surrounding community
This study aimed to determine the relationship between post-traumatic stress (PTS) symptoms, maladaptive trauma-related cognition, and resilience in adolescents exposed to the earthquakes in Lombok, Indonesia
One subject was removed from the study as it was an outlier for the Child’s Post-Traumatic Cognitions Inventory (CPTCI) questionnaire, identified with scatter plot and interquartile range method
Summary
Natural disasters have physical and psychological impacts on individuals and their surrounding community. The risk factors for the development of PTSD include extreme age (children, adolescents, and elderly), female gender, low socioeconomic status, low level of education, and aspects of trauma severity (direct and indirect exposure to disaster, witnessing destruction of property, worry about others, witnessing death and injuries of others and physical injury to self during an event of a natural disaster) [3, 4]. The high prevalence of post-traumatic stress (PTS) symptoms in adolescents is worrying as this may affect their daily functioning and cognition. Natural disasters may physically and psychologically affect individuals and their surrounding community. This study determines the prevalence of post-traumatic stress (PTS) symptoms and its association with maladaptive trauma-related cognition and resilience among adolescents post-earthquake
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