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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

M. Janice Gilliland, PhD¹, Andrea Eden, PhD¹, Susan Tortolero, PhD², Jo Anne Grunbaum, EdD³, Marc N. Elliott, PhD⁴, Paula Cuccaro, PhD², Bradley Stein, MD, PhD⁴, and Mark A. Schuster, MD, PhD⁵. (1) Center for the Advancement of Youth Health, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1530 3rd Avenue South, 912 Building, Birmingham, AL 35294-1200, 205-934-8785, mjgill@uab.edu, (2) Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Research, University of Texas Health Science Center-Houston, 7000 Fannin, 26th floor, Houston, TX 77030, (3) Prevention Research Center Program, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4770 Buford Highway, Mailstop K45, Atlanta, GA 30341, (4) Rand Corporation, 1776 Main Street, Santa Monica, CA 90407, (5) RAND, UCLA Departments of Pediatrics and Health Services, 1776 Main Street, Santa Monica, CA 90407

Research on the effects of the Oklahoma City bombing and the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks indicated that children experience stress and worry about terrorist attacks. Children's and parents' self-reported data on terrorism concerns were collected as part of Healthy Passages, a community-based, multi-center longitudinal study. In the initial cross-sectional Healthy Passages study, 650 racially and ethnically diverse fifth-grade children and their parents were asked three questions about fears related to terrorism. The questions were summed to create a child (alpha=.87) and parent (alpha=.83) fear-of-terrorism index. In addition, data were collected on the child's and parents' mental health outcomes and related issues. Children's terrorism fears were significantly and positively correlated with their TV involvement (.22), negative affect (PANAS-C, .26), fear of negative evaluation (.24), and their parent's terrorism fears (.26) and overall BSI depression score (.21). Children's terrorism fears were significantly and negatively correlated with the PEDsQL emotional subscale (-.28) and self-perception/self worth subscale(-.22) (i.e., higher terrorism score associated with poorer emotional functioning and greater feelings of self worth). These results suggest that children who fear terrorism also exhibit adverse mental health outcomes. Thus, providers of interventions that target adverse mental health outcomes may want to include fear of terrorism as well. Future longitudinal waves of Healthy Passages data have the potential to provide a better understanding of the temporal order of terrorism fears and mental health outcomes.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify 4 adverse mental health outcomes in children related to their fear of terrorism.
• Articulate terrorism concerns of US children and how these concerns are related to children's mental health outcomes.
• Recognize the need for interventions to address the harmful effects of terrorism on children's mental health outcomes.

Keywords: Children and Adolescents, Mental Health

Related Web page: www.healthypassages.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation