Trajectories of tornado-related posttraumatic stress symptoms and pre-exposure predictors in a sample of at-risk youth.

Abstract

The current study examined how severity of disaster exposure and predisaster individual and family characteristics predicted trajectories of disaster-related posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) in children over 4 years following a devastating EF-4 tornado. Participants (n = 346; 65% male; 77.5% African American) were 4th-6th-graders and their caregivers, from predominantly low-income households, who were already participating in a longitudinal study of indicated prevention effects for externalizing outcomes when the tornado occurred in 2011. Latent class trajectory analyses were used to identify disaster-related PTSS trajectory groups across the 4-year postdisaster period. Three groups were identified: (1) a group that declined (recovery) in PTSS over time (15.90%); (2) a group that was stable and low in PTSS over time (76.87%); and (3) a group that was stable and high (chronic) in PTSS over time (7.23%). Multinomial logistic regression analyses revealed that greater tornado exposure predicted membership in the declining trajectory group relative to the low-stable group. Positive parenting and pretornado caregiver trauma exposure also moderated how disaster exposure, particularly perceived life threat, predicted PTSS trajectories. Some youth reported elevated disaster-related PTSS repeatedly for 4 years following a devastating tornado. Consistent with the concept of equifinality, results suggest that there are several pre-exposure risk factors that may increase risk for a chronic PTSS trajectory following disaster exposure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).