Child posttraumatic stress symptoms in an acute injury sample: Patterns of association of child-reports, parent-reports, and child heart-rate parameters

Bailey, Megan, Meiser-Stedman, Richard, Hiller, Rachel, Haag, Katharina, Lobo, Sarah and Halligan, Sarah L. (2023) Child posttraumatic stress symptoms in an acute injury sample: Patterns of association of child-reports, parent-reports, and child heart-rate parameters. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 36 (2). pp. 333-345. ISSN 0894-9867

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Abstract

Parent–child agreement on measures of child posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is moderate at best, and understanding of this discrepancy is limited. To address this, we conducted an item-level investigation of parent–child symptom agreement to examine the potential influence of parental posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) on parents’ reports of their child's PTSS. We also examined heart rate (HR) indices as possible independent indicators of child PTSD, examining patterns of association with parent versus child report. Parent–child dyads (N = 132, child age: 6–13 years, 91.7% White) were recruited after the child's hospital admission following an acute, single-incident traumatic event. At 1-month posttrauma, questionnaires assessing children's PTSS (self- and parental reports) and parental PTSS were administered. For a subset of participants (n = 70), children's HR recordings were obtained during a trauma narrative task and analyzed. Parent and child reports of child PTSS were weakly positively correlated, r = .25. Parental PTSS were found to be stronger positive predictors of parental reports of child PTSS than the children's own symptom reports, β = 0.60 vs. β = 0.14, and were associated with higher parent-reported child PTSS relative to child reports. Finally, children's self-reported PTSS were associated with HR indices, whereas parent reports were not, βs = −.33–.30 vs. βs = −.15–.01. Taken together, children's self-reported PTSS could be a more accurate reflection of their posttrauma physiological distress than parent reports. The potential influence of parental PTSS on their perceptions of their child's symptoms warrants further consideration.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Funding Information: This research was funded by an Economic and Social Research Council grant (ES/K006290/1) awarded to Sarah L. Halligan. The authors have no relevant financial or non‐financial interests to disclose.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	clinical psychology,psychiatry and mental health ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3200/3203
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Norwich Medical School
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Mental Health Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Centres > Lifespan Health
Related URLs:	http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	16 Dec 2022 10:31
Last Modified:	28 Mar 2025 11:55
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/90250
DOI:	10.1002/jts.22913

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