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The effects of a natural disaster on child behavior: evidence for posttraumatic stress.

M S Durkin, N Khan, L L Davidson, S S Zaman and Z A Stein

G.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.

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After the flood.

N Richman
AJPH 1993 83: 1522-1524. [PDF]  

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