Apr 15, 2009
Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms in Children After Hurricane Katrina: Predicting the Need for Mental Health Services
by
,
American Journal of Orthopsychiatry
- Examines factors related to the development of posttraumatic stress symptoms in children and adolescents after Hurricane Katrina
- Hypothesizes that a positive correlation would exist between trauma exposure variables and symptoms indicating need for mental health services experienced 2 years after Hurricane Katrina
- Studies 7,258 children and adolescents from heavily affected Louisiana parishes
- Administers the Hurricane Assessment and Referral Tool for Children and Adolescents developed by the National Child Traumatic Stress Network
- Finds that results were generally supportive of hypotheses
- Results show that 49.1% of students surveyed in the 2005-2006 school year and 41.6% of students surveyed in the 2006-2007 school year met the cut-off score for mental health referral