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Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder on Children Southern New Hampshire University Lakeisha R Shaw August 08,2021

Introduction Post- traumatic stress disorder is normally associated with veterans and soldiers of war. It is never really associated with the general public and also kids. When we search up post-traumatic stress disorder other names such as shell shock, combat neurosis, battle fatigue appears. Looking at other parties that can be affected by this disorder is must. For children’s developmental capacities and the conditions early on may increase the risk and exposure to the disorder. Taking a look at neurodevelopment, temperamental, behavioral, and family environment. The link to post-traumatic stress disorder and the effect on children is a solid one, taking in all the risk factors and family environment. Post-traumatic stress disorder is defined as “manifests following either direct or indirect exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual or emotional violence. Events such as natural disasters (earthquakes, mudslides, fires, floods, tsunamis, tornadoes), war, domestic violence, rape, violent crime, accidents, and medical procedures (Piotrowski & Range, 2020).” Trauma can be experience in many different forms. A dog bite, or the challenges growing up with an abusive parent. Trauma can be divided into subtypes which are interpersonal and noninterpersonal and chronic trauma. Interpersonal types of traumas are emotional abuse and neglect, physical abuse and neglect, sexual abuse and neglect and physical assault. Noninterpersonal traumas are labeled as exposure to an accident or death, exposure to community warfare and natural disasters. Chronic traumas are labeled as a repeated and prolonged exposure to highly stressful situations. Such as cases of child abuse, bullying, or domestic violence. Exposure to traumatic events in childhood and adolescence leads to anxiety and later on PTSD. THE BIOLOGICAL BREAKDROWN

“Childhood trauma exposure is associated with a range of adverse psychological outcomes, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), trauma-related specific phobias and other adjustment problems (Science Direct,2017).” During a study it was said “diverse patterns of cortisol secretion with consistently high circulating catecholamines have been reported in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), an anxiety state that develops after exposure to traumatic life events (Pervanidou, 2008).” Catecholamines is defined as a group of similar substances released into the blood in response to physical or emotional stress. The categories of catecholamines are dopamine, epinephrine (adrenaline), and norepinephrine. Cortisol is defined as a steroid hormone that regulates a wide range of processes throughout the body. Including metabolism and the immune response, it also has a very important role in helping the body respond to stress. So, when kids experience a traumatic event, they tend to produce high levels of cortisol and epinephrine as a response to the event. They also tend to go into a state of anxiety and lock themselves away from the world. It’s like their body is shutting down and going on autopilot, doing things out of memory but really not responding to the world. To further prove the claim the study also stated, “peripheral cortisol levels have been reported to be low or normal in the majority of adult chronic PTSD studies, whereas, in most pediatric studies, high cortisol values have been documented (Pervanidou.2008).” SYMPTOMS OF PTSD Children in another study children was diagnosed with either chronic or acute post- traumatic stress disorder. “The authors report on 24 children diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) according to DSM-III criteria. Each child was designated as presenting with acute or chronic PTSD depending upon the duration of symptoms (Famularo, 1990).” The symptoms of post- traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in children were categorized with each diagnosis. Acute

PTSD symptoms was labeled as if they were in movie scene, and it was playing over and over again in their heads. “Children with the acute form of PTSD presented with a relative increase in spontaneously acting as though the trauma were recurring upon real or symbolic exposure, difficulty falling asleep, hypervigilance, nightmares, exaggerated startle response, and generalized anxiety/agitation (Famularo, 1990).” Children diagnosed with chronic PTSD symptoms was labeled as spontaneous behavior, nightmares, anxiety, and agitation. They also are detached, dissociative and sadness. “Children with the acute form of PTSD presented with a relative increase in spontaneously acting as though the trauma were recurring upon real or symbolic exposure, difficulty falling asleep, hypervigilance, nightmares, exaggerated startle response, and generalized anxiety/agitation. Those presenting with the chronic form had relative increases in symptoms of detachment, restricted range of affect, dissociative episodes, sadness, and a belief that life will be too hard (Famularo, 1990).” PARENTS CONTRIBUTION Parents can either be the trigger to disaster for the child with PTSD or they could be the support system needed to help the child cope with it. “Several researchers have considered the ways in which parents may alleviate or exacerbate child post-traumatic distress (ScienceDirect, 2017).” Parents are the key in the way the child responds to the trauma that happened directly or indirectly. “Importantly, parent-child interactions can influence the way in which young people remember and appraise events, and parents are influential in determining child engagement with trauma-related material and may model or encourage certain coping styles (ScienceDirect, 2017).” Negative ways a parent can impact a child’s ability to overcome or fall deeper into the diagnosis are overprotection and hostile behavior. When parents are overprotective, they can put negative impacts on the child not giving them enough space to grow. “Overprotection, including

excessive involvement in a child's activities and lack of autonomy granting, is assumed to obstruct the development of self-efficacy and increase a child's perceived vulnerability to threat (ScienceDirect, 2017).” In a meta-analysis of studies, the researchers examined the parents in relation to the child and anxiety. When parental overprotection came into play, it had a moderate effect. Taking an account for 6% of children with anxiety. With these observations it shows the relevance to child PTSD, due to the child trauma exposure that has been linked with increases in parent monitoring behavior. “Parents may be prone to engaging in more restrictive, less positive behaviors in this context, possibly due to fears that the child may be traumatized again (ScienceDirect, 2017).” Hostile parental behavior contributes negatively to a child’s trauma and can further put the child at risk with PTSD. Aggression and criticism to9ward a child can lead to a child's emotion regulation by increasing their sensitivity to anxiety. “Negative or critical parental responses may also reinforce child negative trauma-related appraisals and thereby influence PTSD directly (ScienceDirect, 2017).” Research have also shown “adult patients with PTSD whose relatives score highly on scales of expressed emotion (with high levels of criticism) have poorer treatment outcomes than patients whose families exhibit low expressed emotion (ScienceDirect, 2017).” On the positive side of things parents that show support of the child helps them cope with posttrauma. Giving them a sense of security and helping them to address the trauma that happened. “Parents who are supportive, available and accepting are likely to provide additional opportunities for children to discuss and address trauma-related distress (ScienceDirect, 2017).” Children also get a sense of affection and warmth that makes it easier to deal with the traumas and an unspoken word of it’s ok, I’m here to help you through it. “Positive involvement in the child's activities and expressions of affection and warmth towards the child, may facilitate child

coping post-trauma by providing a sense of security, coaching, and modelling adaptive coping (ScienceDirect, 2017).” I believe that the parent involvement could either make or break the process of the child’s understanding and coping of traumas and the disorder. It’s imperative that the parent be involved because with any child they will always needs their parents even in adulthood. CONCLUSION In conclusion, I believe that the way a parent raises a child and treat a child is the outcome of how the child develops. When parents are dealing with disorders, I think how they cope with it can either make or break a child. Then when a child has their own disorder, the way a parent deals with the child also can make or break them. Positive parents work in both situations, because if not is affects the child negatively. How a child is raised is how the child will develop in adulthood. When a parent is negative towards a child, it leads to generation after generation of childhood traumas that will put them at risk of developing PTSD. This cycle needs to be stopped because healthy children lead to healthy adults. Childhood PTSD needs to be researched more because with the facts presented, it is detrimental to the child’s overall health. PTSD should not just be linked to veterans, but to the general public. Many childhoods trauma’s go unnoticed until it is too late to fix, and it affects them in adulthood. The longer it goes unnoticed the more issues will arise.

REFERENCES 1. Pervanidou, P. (2008, May 1). Biology of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Childhood

and Adolescence. Wiley Online Library. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-2826.2008.01701.x 2. Piotrowski, N. A., PhD, & Range, L. M., PhD. (2020). Post-traumatic stress disorder. Magill’s Medical Guide (Online Edition). 3. The role of parenting behaviors in childhood post-traumatic stress disorder: A meta-

analytic review. (2017, April 1). ScienceDirect. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272735815300192 4. Famularo, R. (1990). Symptom differences in acute and chronic presentation of

childhood post-traumatic stress disorder. PubMed. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2207812/...