Trauma Exposure and Mental Health Outcomes among Youth in New Orleans

Background: Exposure to traumatic life events has been associated with adverse mental health outcomes such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in youth.  In New Orleans, exposure to violence among youth may explain the high burden of mental health challenges.

Methods: Participants of a sexual health and wellbeing program were surveyed on experiences of stressful/traumatic life events and screened for symptoms of depression and PTSD. Bivariate analyses were conducted to investigate associations between items on the survey using SPSS. Participant residences were mapped using Quantum GIS to investigate clustering of symptoms by census block.

Results:  A total of 557 youth who completed the survey were eligible (45.4% male/54.6% female - average age 13.63).  Of youth surveyed, 54.7% experienced at least 3 stressful life events, the most common of which were murder of someone close to them (56.6%) and seeing assault (40.7%).  Bivariate analyses showed that youth who endorsed symptoms of depression were more likely to report domestic violence between parents/guardians (p = .025) and being worried about being assaulted (p=.001).  Youth that endorsed symptoms of PTSD were significantly more likely to report experiencing domestic violence between parents/guardians (p= .000) and experiencing murder of someone close to them (.035). Exposures to violence and correlated mental health outcomes were clustered in specific neighborhoods.

Conclusions: Youth in New Orleans face a mental health crisis due to trauma and lack of access to care.  Findings should be a point of advocacy for policies which ensure access and availability of mental health services to youth.