Trauma,Grief and Depression in Nairobi Children After the 1998 Bombing of the American Embassy |
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| Authors: | Betty Pfefferbaum Carol S. North Debby E. Doughty Rose L. Pfefferbaum Cedric E. Dumont Robert S. Pynoos |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences , College of Medicine, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center , Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA;2. Terrorism and Disaster Branch of the National Center for Child Traumatic Stress , Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA betty-pfefferbaum@ouhsc.edu;4. Department of Psychiatry , University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center , Dallas, Texas, USA;5. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences , College of Medicine, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center , Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA;6. Liberal Arts Department , Phoenix College , Phoenix, Arizona, USA;7. Department of State , Office of Medical Services , Washington, D.C., USA;8. Trauma Psychiatry, University of California , Los Angeles, California, USA;9. The National Center for Child Traumatic Stress, Los Angeles, California, USA , Los Angeles, California, USA |
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| Abstract: | Despite the increasingly dangerous world where trauma and loss are common, relatively few studies have explored traumatic grief in children. The 1998 American Embassy bombing in Nairobi, Kenya, provided an unfortunate opportunity to examine this topic. This report describes findings in 156 children who knew someone killed in the incident, assessed 8 to 14 months after the explosion. Bomb-related posttraumatic stress was associated with physical exposure, acute response, posttraumatic stress related to other negative life events, type of bomb-related loss, and subsequent loss. Grief was associated with bomb-related posttraumatic stress, posttraumatic stress related to other negative life events, and type of bomb-related loss. The study supports the developing literature on traumatic grief and the need for studies exploring the potentially unique aspects of this construct. |
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