Recalling a Devastating Tornado: Qualities of Child Recollections and Associations with Mental Health Symptoms.

Abstract

Trauma recollections often contain trauma-related cognitive and emotional processing. Research examining indicators of such processing in children's trauma recollections and their association with mental health symptoms is limited. Fifty 8 to 12-year-old children provided two open-ended recollections about (1) challenging/"bad" things and (2) positive/ "good" things that happened to them 1-year post experiencing an EF-5 tornado. Children completed exposure and mental health symptom measures (PTSD, anxiety, depression). Transcripts were coded for indicators of processing: coherence, positive and negative emotion terms, and resolutions. Age, gender, SES, family tornado-related discussion frequency, verbal ability, tornado-specific psychotherapy receipt, and exposure were controlled. Coherence and positive emotion were positively associated and resolutions were negatively associated with mental health symptoms when children discussed the "bad" things. Children's processing and mental health symptoms were unrelated when children discussed the "good" things. The measured indicators of children's processing may reflect children's meaning-making efforts and have implications for adjustment.