POSTTRAUMATIC, DISSOCIATIVE AND GRIEF SYMPTOMS IN TURKISH CHILDREN EXPOSED TO THE 1999 EARTHQUAKES
- 1 December 2002
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health) in Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease
- Vol. 190 (12), 824-832
- https://doi.org/10.1097/00005053-200212000-00004
Abstract
Grief and dissociation after traumatic exposures are among the most important predictors of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This article introduces the Traumatic Dissociation and Grief Scale (TDGS), a 23-item measure easily administered. The TDGS, the Child PTSD-Reaction Index (CPTSD-RI), and a questionnaire concerning risk factors related to the event (losses, injury, and witnessing death and injuries) were administered to school-aged children who had been directly exposed to the 1999 earthquakes in Turkey and to a nonexposed control group. Factor analysis of the TDGS yielded four factors: perceptual distortions, body-self distortions, irritability, and guilt and anhedonia. A moderate positive correlation was noted between the TDGS and the CPTSD-RI. Different sets of risk factors were associated with the different scale factors. The results suggest that the assessment of psychopathology in children following a disaster requires the complementary evaluation of symptoms of posttrauma, dissociation, and grief.This publication has 27 references indexed in Scilit:
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