While some studies find a relationship, others do not. It is not clear how a child's age at the time of exposure to a traumatic event affects the occurrence or severity of PTSD. While some studies find that minorities report higher levels of PTSD symptoms, researchers have shown that this is due to other factors such as differences in levels of exposure. There is less clarity in the findings connecting PTSD with ethnicity and age. Both parental support and lower levels of parental PTSD have been found to predict lower levels of PTSD in children. Parents have been shown to have protective factors (practice parameters). In addition to exposure variables, other risk factors include: Of those children who directly witnessed the shooting on the playground, 77% had moderate to severe PTSD symptoms, whereas 67% of those in the school building at the time and only 26% of the children who had gone home for the day had moderate or severe symptoms (6). For example, in one study of a fatal sniper attack that occurred at an elementary school proximity to the shooting was directly related to the percentage of children who developed PTSD. There are no definitive studies on prevalence rates of PTSD in younger children in the general population.īack to Top What are the risk factors for PTSD?īoth the type of event and the intensity of exposure impact the degree to which an event results in PTSD.
Current rates (in the past month) are 3.9% overall (5).
Prevalence is higher for girls than boys (8.0% vs. Results indicate that 5% of adolescents have met criteria for PTSD in their lifetime. The National Comorbidity Survey Replication- Adolescent Supplement is a nationally representative sample of over 10,000 adolescents aged 13-18. Specifically in their lifetime:īack to Top How many children develop PTSD? Almost half (47%) had experienced one of these types of traumas. As an example, among 14-17 year old girls, 18.7 have experienced a completed or attempted sexual assault in their lifetime and more than a third had witnessed parental assault (2).Ī second national study asked 4,023 adolescents aged 12-17 if they had ever experienced sexual or physical assault or witnessed violence (3). more than 1 in 4 (25.3%) had witnessed domestic or communityĪs children age there is more opportunity for exposure, thus lifetime exposure was one third to one half higher than past year exposure.fewer than 1 in 10 (6.1%) had experienced sexual victimization.1 in 10 (10.2%) experienced child maltreatment.almost half (46.3%) experienced physical assault.The National Survey of Children's Exposure to Violence reports on 1 year and lifetime prevalence of childhood victimization in a nationally representative sample of 4549 children aged 0-17.2 More than half (60.6%) of the sample experienced or witnessed victimization in the past year. In older children there have been several national studies. less than 10 percent (9.1%) suffered sexual abuse.more than 15 percent (17.6%) suffered physical abuse.more than 75 percent (78.5%) suffered neglect.Of those cases referred, about 19% were substantiated and occurred in the following frequencies (1).
In 2011, child protective services in the United States received 3.4 million referrals, representing 6.2 million children. Also, they underestimate abuse because not all abuse is reported. These rates underestimate traumatic exposure given that they address abuse only and not other types of traumatic events. The best information on very young children comes from annual statistics from the Department of Health and Human Services on child abuse. How many children develop PTSD? What are the risk factors for PTSD? What does PTSD look like in children? Besides PTSD, what are the other effects of trauma on children? How is PTSD treated in children and adolescents? References How many children and adolescents experience traumatic events?