Impact of Trauma on Palestinian Children PTSD, Anxiety, Depression and Coping Strategies | Chapter 02 | Current Trends in Medicine and Medical Research Vol. 1
Aim:
The aim of the paper was to investigate the impact of trauma after one year of
Gaza War on children PTSD, anxiety, depression, and coping strategies as
mediator factors.
Methods:
The study sample consisted of 449 children from the children who were exposed
to the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, 51.9% of the them were boys and 48.1%
were girls. Children completed measures of experience of traumatic events (Gaza
Traumatic Events Checklist-20 items, War on Gaza), PTSD, Birleson Depression
Scale, and Child Revised Manifest Anxiety Scale. The data was collected on
March 2010 from the entire Gaza Strip.
Results:
After one year, still the Palestinian children reported many traumatic events,
90.4% of children reported watched mutilated bodies in TV, 44.6% exposed to
deprivation from water, food, or electricity during the war, 33.5% left their
homes with families and relatives, 29.8%
witnessed firing by tanks and heavy artillery at neighbors’ homes, 4.1%
threaten with being killed, 4.1% threatened with death by being used as human
shield by the army to arrest their neighbor.
Our results showed that each child experience 5.92. The study showed
that 56.6% of children still reporting mild trauma (0-5 events), 32.9% reported
moderate trauma (6-10), and 10.6% reported severe trauma level. There were no
significant sex and age differences in exposure to trauma. Children with high
traumatic experiences reported more self-criticism, also children with high
exposure to trauma had less social support.
For
post traumatic stress reactions, 43.4% of children reported that when something
reminds them of what happened during the war, they get very upset, afraid or
sad. 31.5% afraid that the bad thing will happen again. 30.4% feel jumpy or
startle easily, like when I hear a loud noise or when, 30% try to stay away
from people, places, or things that make me remember what happened. Using DSM-TR criteria for PTSD, 24.9% of
children had no symptoms, 30.2% had at
least one cluster of symptoms (intrusion or avoidance or hyperarousal), 32.5%
had partial PTSD (Two cluster of symptoms), and 12.4% had full criteria of
PTSD. No significant sex differences in PTSD. Children living in families with
monthly income less than $300 had more PTSD, intrusion, avoidance and
hyperarousal than the other groups. The study showed that children live in
cities showed more PTSD symptoms than those in villages and camps. There was
significant correlation between total traumatic events and PTSD. For fear
symptoms, commonly children: always my parents tell me to be careful of all
people (72%), I become tired quickly when I run from the house (60.4%), scream
when I see and hear the plane in the air (56.2%). The results showed that total
fears symptoms were 9.27 (SD =5.13).
For
anxiety symptoms, the most common symptoms were: Feel worried when things do
not go as they want (79.1%), being anxious to what is happening in the future
(67%), they are always anxious for bad things can happen to them (64.4%), hurt
easily their feelings when they are anxious (54.8%), while the less items was
they always feel that they are am alone when they are with people (22.1%). Using cut-off point of RCMAS, 20.5% of
children scored above cut-off point of anxiety. There were significant
correlations between total anxiety and total traumatic events score. There were
statistically significant differences in anxiety toward boys. Children with
anxiety scored more in total coping strategies, more resignation, and social
withdrawal as coping strategies than children without anxiety.
Biography of author(s)
Professor Abdel Aziz Mousa
Thabet
Emeritus
Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry-School of Public Health - Al Quds
University- Jerusalem- Palestine state. Affiliated Scholar at Center for Refugee Studies at York
University-Canada, President of 2Child and Family Training and Counseling
Center –Gaza.
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