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The effects of a natural disaster on child behavior: evidence for posttraumatic stress
M S Durkin1, N Khan, L L Davidson
1G.H. Sergievsky Center, Columbia University, New York, N.Y. 10032.
Objectives:
A prospective study of children examined both before and after a flood disaster in Bangladesh is used to test the hypothesis that stressful events play a causal role in the development of behavioral disorders in children.
Methods:
Six months before the disaster, structured measures of selected behavioral problems were made during an epidemiological study of disability among 2- to 9-year-old children. Five months after the disaster, a representative sample of 162 surviving children was reevaluated.
Results:
Between the pre- and postflood assessments, the prevalence of aggressive behavior increased from zero to nearly 10%, and 45 of the 134 children who had bladder control before the flood (34%) developed enuresis.
Conclusions:
These results help define what may be considered symptoms of posttraumatic distress in childhood; they also contribute to mounting evidence of the need to develop and evaluate interventions aimed at ameliorating the behavioral and psychological consequences of children's exposure to extreme and traumatic situations.