CTDA 1035: Posttraumatic Stress in Children Age 8 to 16 and Their Parents After Hurricane, United States, 2005-2008 (ICPSR 39322)

Version Date: Jun 18, 2025

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Principal Investigator(s):
Mary Lou Kelley, Louisiana State University

Series:

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR39322.v1

Version V1

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Summary

The overall objective of this study was to examine trajectories and predictors of posttraumatic stress and depression in children and parents after a major hurricane, with a particular focus on hurricane exposure and on parenting variables that might be amenable to intervention.

Three months after the hurricane, the study enrolled students in grades four through eight (age 8 to 16) in local schools and invited parent participation, and conducted assessments at four time points post-hurricane. Children reported on prior violence exposure and hurricane-related trauma exposure, and on posttraumatic stress, coping, social support; and parents reported on child behavior as well as their own posttraumatic stress and other mental health symptoms, coping, and parenting practices. (Note: The current dataset does not include measures of parenting practices.)

Citation

Kelley, Mary Lou. CTDA 1035: Posttraumatic Stress in Children Age 8 to 16 and Their Parents After Hurricane, United States, 2005-2008. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2025-06-18. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR39322.v1

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Funding

United States Department of Health and Human Services. National Institutes of Health. National Institute of Mental Health (MH-078148A), United States Department of Homeland Security. Directorate of Science and Technology (2008-ST-061-ND 0001), United States Department of Health and Human Services. National Institutes of Health. Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R03 HD092720)

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Smallest Geographic Unit

Country

Restrictions

Access to these data requires a signed Researcher Application which is available to download as study documentation.

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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Time Period(s)

2005 -- 2008

Date of Collection

2005 -- 2008

Data Collection Notes

  1. This project is part of the Child Trauma Data Archives (CTDA). For more information, please visit the CTDA series website and refer to the Collection Notes document under the Data and Documentation tab.

  2. This project is intended to be used in cross-study analysis with other child trauma datasets.

  3. Some documentation may reflect a previous version of the study title and P.I. affiliations. For the latest metadata, please see this study homepage.

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Study Purpose

The aim of the study was to identify trajectories of youth's posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms following a major hurricane, as well as risk and protective factors associated with each trajectory.

Study Design

A total of 426 youth and their parents were recruited from six schools. Interested parents completed and returned consent forms and self-report questionnaires. Children completed questionnaires in small groups at school. Questionnaires were administered at four time points post-disaster: Time 1 was conducted at 3 months post-hurricane; Time 2 was conducted at 13 months post-hurricane; Time 3 was conducted at 19 months post-hurricane; and Time 4 was conducted at 25 months post-hurricane. Measures included hurricane impact variables (initial loss/disruption and perceived life threat); history of family and community violence exposure, parent and peer social support, and post-disaster posttraumatic stress symptoms.

Time Method

Longitudinal: Cohort / Event-based

Universe

Children and adolescents and their parents after a major hurricane.

Unit(s) of Observation

Individual

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

Description of Variables

Variables in Child Trauma Data Archive (CTDA) datasets have been standardized for cross-study analysis. For variable naming conventions, please refer to the CTDA Data Manual.

  • Study-level metadata: study title and P.I., series ID, methodology (e.g., recruitment setting type)
  • Traumatic event descriptors: type of traumatic event, event circumstances, time since event
  • Demographics: child/adolescent age, sex, race/ethnicity; parent/caregiver sex, race/ethnicity, education level, relationship status, relation to child/adolescent
  • Stress items: emotions, cognitions, and behaviors experienced by the child/adolescent during and following the incident (e.g., isolation, numbness, dissociation, poor memory, nightmares)
  • Mental health symptoms: depression, anxiety, self-esteem, suicidal ideation, nervousness
  • Coping and help seeking items

Response Rates

Of the families contacted regarding their interest in the study, approximately 35 percent consented and completed questionnaires. At Time 1, 388 children participated in the study. An additional 38 children began participating at Time 2, but no additional participants were added at Times 3 or 4.

The number of participants who completed the UCLA posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) Reaction Index - Revision 1 at each wave were as follows:

  • Time 1 = 346 (83 percent)
  • Time 2 = 356 (85 percent)
  • Time 3 = 345 (83 percent)
  • Time 4 = 331 (79 percent)

The majority of participants completed measures at either three or four time points: 238 (57 percent) completed four time points; 105 (25 percent) completed three time points; 37 (9 percent) completed two time points; and 37 (9 percent) completed only one time point.

Presence of Common Scales

  • Hurricane-Related Traumatic Experiences (HURTE)
  • Screen for Adolescent Violence Exposure (SAVE) and Kid-SAVE
  • Behavior Assessment Scale for Children (BASC)
  • UCLA posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) Reaction Index for DSM-IV
  • KidCOPE
  • Social Support Scale for Children and Adolescents (SSSCA)
  • Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale (PDS)
  • Impact of Events Scale (IES)
  • Symptom Checklist 90 Revised (SCL-90-R)
  • Brief Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced (COPE) Inventory

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Original Release Date

2025-06-18

Version History

2025-06-18 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

  • Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.

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Notes

  • The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.

  • One or more files in this data collection have special restrictions. Restricted data files are not available for direct download from the website; click on the Restricted Data button to learn more.