CTDA 1036: Posttraumatic Stress, Appraisals, and Coping in Children Age 8 to 13 Hospitalized for Injury and Their Parents, United States, 2012-2015 (ICPSR 39433)
Version Date: Jul 23, 2025 View help for published
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s)
Meghan L. Marsac, University of Kentucky
Series:
https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR39433.v1
Version V1
Summary View help for Summary
Millions of children suffer unintentional injuries annually. While the majority display transient psychological distress, a significant minority develop significant, persistent symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that are associated with poorer general health outcomes and impaired quality of life. Understanding variables that contribute to the development of PTSD is an essential step in identifying children at increased risk for PTSD and improving secondary prevention to reduce the incidence of PTSD in children following medical events.
The objective of this study was to examine the interplay of biological, psychological (cognitive appraisals, coping), and environmental (parent influence) factors during the peri-trauma time period as these relate to the development of child PTSD symptoms over time.
Children age 8-13 with a recent injury (within the past 2 weeks) and one parent / caregiver per child were enrolled during an inpatient hospitalization. At the time of enrollment, and again 6 weeks and 12 weeks post-injury, children and parents completed measures of cognitive appraisals, coping, coping assistance, and PTSD symptoms. A brief parent-child interaction task was completed at the time of the baseline assessment - data from this task-based assessment are not included in this dataset.
Citation View help for Citation
Export Citation:
Funding View help for Funding
Subject Terms View help for Subject Terms
Geographic Coverage View help for Geographic Coverage
Smallest Geographic Unit View help for Smallest Geographic Unit
Country
Restrictions View help for Restrictions
Access to these data requires a signed Researcher Application which is available to download as study documentation.
Distributor(s) View help for Distributor(s)
Time Period(s) View help for Time Period(s)
Date of Collection View help for Date of Collection
Data Collection Notes View help for Data Collection Notes
-
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.
-
This project is intended to be used in cross-study analysis with other child trauma datasets.
Study Purpose View help for Study Purpose
The purpose of this study was to examine posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) in youth who experienced inpatient hospitalization for an injury, and to better understand how personal coping skills and coping assistance provided by parents impacts PTSS over time.
Study Design View help for Study Design
Children and their parents were enrolled in this three-part study upon admission to a hospital for a recent injury. Participants completed the initial assessment within 2 weeks of injury, and completed follow-up surveys at 6 and 12 weeks following the injury. The initial assessment screened for trauma history, the six-week follow-up included questions about coping skills, and all three rounds of the survey asked participants about posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). Heart rate data was drawn from medical records.
Sample View help for Sample
Convenience sample of children enrolled during hospital admission.
Time Method View help for Time Method
Universe View help for Universe
Children exposed to a recent potentially traumatic event.
Unit(s) of Observation View help for Unit(s) of Observation
Data Type(s) View help for Data Type(s)
Mode of Data Collection View help for Mode of Data Collection
Description of Variables View help for 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, 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 from common scales
- Pulse in-transit and upon admission to the hospital
Presence of Common Scales View help for Presence of Common Scales
- Child PTSD Symptom Scale (CPSS)
- Help Seeking Questionnaire (CHOP-developed scale)
- How I Coped Under Pressure Scale (HICUPS)
- Parent Socialization of Coping Questionnaire (PSCQ) - Short
- Posttraumatic Cognitions Inventory (PTCI)
- PTSD Checklist (PCL)
- Reactions to Research Participation Questionnaire (RRPQ)
- Social Problem Solving Inventory--Revised (SPSI--R)
- UCLA PTSD Reaction Index - Trauma History Scale only
Original Release Date View help for Original Release Date
2025-07-23
Version History View help for Version History
2025-07-23 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.
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.