Childhood Trauma among children in the Massachusetts Child Trauma Project (MCTP)

Background

Childhood trauma is a major public health problem. In Massachusetts many children in the Department of Children and Families’ (DCF) care report witnessing/experiencing a traumatic event. Children who experience trauma are more vulnerable to anxiety and depression.

Hypothesis

This analysis seeks to characterize types of traumas that children in the Massachusetts Child Trauma Project (MCTP) experienced and how those traumas correlate to PTSD symptoms, functioning, hopefulness, and social connectedness (adjustment).

Methods

Data includes: types of trauma(s), ages when traumas occurred, and parent/child self-report of adjustment from 317 children from Northern and Western Massachusetts enrolled in MCTP. Chronicity was calculated as the number of ages at which the child experienced each trauma and was explored using Pearson correlation analyses with parent/child self-report measures of adjustment. 

Results

Children experienced an average of 5 traumas (range 0-14), including: emotional abuse (69.1%), domestic violence (68.1%), traumatic loss (65.9%), impaired caregiver (65.8%), and neglect (64.4%). Total number of traumas experienced significantly correlated with child-reported PTSD severity, parent-reported young child PTSD severity, and parent-reported young child functional impairment. Significant correlations were found between chronicity of traumas and adjustment.  Among older and younger children, chronicity of traumas, such as  injury, neglect, physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, were variously related to PTSD symptoms and adjustment.

Conclusion

Children often become involved with DCF because of stress within the home, reflective of the types of traumas reported. The number of different types of traumas experienced and chronicity of many of these traumas related to the child’s trauma symptoms and adjustment.