What Is Child Traumatic Stress?

What is child traumatic stress, how does it develop, and what are the symptoms? To answer these questions, we first have to understand what trauma is.

From a psychological perspective, trauma occurs when a child experiences an intense event that threatens or causes harm to his or her emotional and physical well-being.

Trauma can be the result of exposure to a natural disaster such as a hurricane or flood or to events such as war and terrorism. Witnessing or being the victim of violence, serious injury, or physical or sexual abuse can be traumatic. Accidents or medical procedures can result in trauma, too. Sadly, about one of every four children will experience a traumatic event before the age of 16.

When children have a traumatic experience, they react in both physiological and psychological ways. Their heart rate may increase, and they may begin to sweat, to feel agitated and hyperalert, to feel "butterflies" in their stomach, and to become emotionally upset. These reactions are distressing, but in fact they're normal - they're our bodies' way of protecting us and preparing us to confront danger. However, some children who have experienced a traumatic event will have longer lasting reactions that can interfere with their physical and emotional health.

Children who suffer from child traumatic stress are those children who have been exposed to one or more traumas over the course of their lives and develop reactions that persist and affect their daily lives after the traumatic events have ended. Traumatic reactions can include a variety of responses, including intense and ongoing emotional upset, depressive symptoms, anxiety, behavioral changes, difficulties with attention, academic difficulties, nightmares, physical symptoms such as difficulty sleeping and eating, and aches and pains, among others. Children who suffer from traumatic stress often have these types of symptoms when reminded in some way of the traumatic event.

Although many of us may experience these reactions from time to time, when a child is experiencing child traumatic stress, they interfere with the child's daily life and ability to function and interact with others. Some of these children may develop ongoing symptoms that are diagnosed as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). When we talk about child traumatic stress, we're talking about the stress of any child who's had a traumatic experience and is having difficulties moving forward with his or her life. When we talk about PTSD, we're talking about a disorder defined by the American Psychiatric Association as having specific symptoms: the child continues to re-experience the event through nightmares, flashbacks, or other symptoms for more than a month after the original experience; the child has what we call avoidance or numbing symptoms - he or she won't think about the event, has memory lapses, or maybe feels numb in connection with the events - and the child has feelings of arousal, such as increased irritability, difficulty sleeping, or others. Every child diagnosed with PTSD is experiencing child traumatic stress, but not every child experiencing child traumatic stress has all the symptoms for a PTSD diagnosis.

And not every child who experiences a traumatic event will develop symptoms of child traumatic stress. Whether or not your child does depends on a range of factors. These include his or her history of previous trauma exposure, because children who have experienced prior traumas are more likely to develop symptoms after a recent event. They also include an individual child's mental and emotional strengths and weaknesses and what kind of support he or she has at home and elsewhere. In some instances, when two children encounter the same situation, one will develop ongoing difficulties and the other will not. Children are unique individuals, and it's unwise to make sweeping assumptions about whether they will or will not experience ongoing troubles following a traumatic event.

For children who do experience traumatic stress, there are a wide variety of potential consequences. In addition to causing the symptoms listed earlier, the experience can have a direct impact on the development of children's brains and bodies. Traumatic stress can interfere with children's ability to concentrate, learn, and perform in school. It can change how children view the world and their futures, and can lead to future employment problems. It can also take a tremendous toll on the entire family.

The way that traumatic stress appears will vary from child to child and will depend on the child's age and developmental level. The good news is that over the past decade the mental health community has developed treatments that can help children suffering from traumatic stress. It's important to seek help from someone who has experience working with children and knows how to access resources in your community.

Although not every child will experience traumatic stress, it's unlikely that any of us are immune from exposure to trauma. To learn more about child traumatic stress, please visit the National Child Traumatic Stress Network website at www.NCTSNet.org.

This article first appeared in the fall 2003 issue of Claiming Children, the newsletter of the Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health, www.ffcmh.org, which was co-produced by the Federation and the NCTSN.

Reviewed by athealth on February 8, 2014.