The effects of a natural disaster on child behavior: evidence for posttraumatic stress

Abstract

OBJECTIVES:

A prospective study of children examined both before and after a flood disaster in Bangladesh is used to test the hypothesis that stressful events play a causal role in the development of behavioral disorders in children.

METHODS:

Six months before the disaster, structured measures of selected behavioral problems were made during an epidemiological study of disability among 2- to 9-year-old children. Five months after the disaster, a representative sample of 162 surviving children was reevaluated.

RESULTS:

Between the pre- and postflood assessments, the prevalence of aggressive behavior increased from zero to nearly 10%, and 45 of the 134 children who had bladder control before the flood (34%) developed enuresis.

CONCLUSIONS:

These results help define what may be considered symptoms of posttraumatic distress in childhood; they also contribute to mounting evidence of the need to develop and evaluate interventions aimed at ameliorating the behavioral and psychological consequences of children's exposure to extreme and traumatic situations.