Posttraumatic cognitions in young children

• Applicant: Dr. Mira Vasileva
• Subject Area: Personality Psychology, Clinical and Medical Psychology, Methodology
• Term: from 2019 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 420503242

Children exposed to potentially traumatic accidents - like road traffic accidents and burn injuries - are at risk for mental health problems, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). According to cognitive models of PTSD, children exposed to such experiences could have dysfunctional or functional posttraumatic cognitions that either lead to further psychopathology, or help them cope with trauma. To date, investigations of posttraumatic cognitions following accidental trauma have been restricted to children above age 6. However, posttraumatic cognitions could be important factors for trauma recovery in younger children as well. The aim of the proposed study is to examine for the first time dysfunctional as well as functional posttraumatic cognitions associated with mental health following potentially traumatic accidents in children between the ages of 3 and 6 years old. Additionally, the study will examine the relationship between children’s and parents’ posttraumatic cognitions as well as parents’ acute stress reaction. The planned study constitutes a follow-up of the innovative project using the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR) to assess naturalistic observation of spontaneous, everyday parent-child communication after serious injuries. The study strategy is optimized to assess posttraumatic cognitions in children between the ages of 3 and 6 years old by using an adapted coding rational and including qualitative analysis. Due to assessment difficulties with young children, the extensive data collection will include a) EAR records of everyday conversations, b) parent-report questionnaires, and c) qualitative interviews with children and their parents who have attended the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, Australia after serious injury. I will code and statistically analyse approximately 14,000 audio snippets (per 30 s) of N = 48 children; about 4,000 snippets of 13 children are already available from the initial EAR project. Furthermore, I will qualitatively assess dysfunctional and functional posttraumatic cognitions in semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 35 children and one of their parents (total N = 70). The interviews will be analysed inductively based on grounded theory. The project findings will bring valuable insights for age-appropriate assessment of dysfunctional and functional posttraumatic cognitions as well as for the adaption of current diagnostic PTSD criteria for young children. The findings may also generate important implications for interventions that aim to address dysfunctional and strengthen functional posttraumatic cognitions in young children exposed to potentially traumatic accidents.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: Australia
• Host: Professorin Eva Alisic, Ph.D.