Counselors would benefit from what other mental health care professionals consider to be best practices for preventing and treating posttraumatic stress disorders. The purpose of this article is to summarize for counselors those best practices that have been recently developed and published by a multidisciplinary group in an article published in…

Cross-sectional data were gathered from 1,625 children (M age = 12.85, SD = 2.21) which included 755 AIDS orphans, 466 vulnerable children, and 404 comparison children. Participants completed self-report measures of exposure to traumatic events, and psychosocial adjustment including behavior problems, depression, self-esteem, and future…

Twenty-one female psychiatric outpatients with chronic posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are randomly assigned to prolonged exposure (PE; n = 9) for PTSD or treatment as usual (TAU; n = 12). Participants are predominately low income and African American with complex trauma and psychiatric histories. Treatment is delivered by community…

Adolescents possess numerous strengths and vulnerabilities based on their unique stage of development. When youth experience a disaster, whether natural or human-caused, there are certain considerations to be taken into account when providing them with support. This article describes common adolescent reactions to the impact phase of disasters as…

Women remain perhaps the forgotten majority of persons to survive clergy-perpetrated sexual abuse. The impact of this abuse of women has been largely overlooked. Through a qualitative exploration of narratives from semistructured interviews of 25 women sexually abused by clergy (18 as adults and 7 as children), this study examined how the women…

The literature on clergy-perpetrated sexual abuse suggests that there are two modal populations of survivors: boys and adult women. We review what is known about trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder following sexual abuse and explore the different treatment needs for these two survivor groups. For children, clergy-perpetrated sexual abuse can…

"The Challenge", a publication of the US Department of Education's office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools, provides critical information and resources to assist schools in creating safe and healthy environments for young people. This issue covers topics related to helping children overcome traumatic events. Topics of interest include: (1)…

The aim of this study was the preliminary development of a short 10-item version of the CiOQ. First, 10 items were selected on the basis of their high factor loadings in previously published work. Two studies are then reported. In Study 1, the 10 items were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis using data from a sample of college students…

The primary objective of this study was to examine unresolved trauma as assessed by the Adult Attachment Interview and current psychiatric symptoms, focusing on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and dissociation, in a group of adult female childhood abuse survivors. The authors examined psychiatric symptoms and attachment representations in a…

Urban teens face many traumas, with implications for potential growth and distress. This study examined traumatic events, posttraumatic growth, and emotional distress over 18 months among urban adolescent girls (N = 328). Objectives were to (a) describe types of traumatic events, (b) determine how type and timing of events relate to profiles of…

Background: The present study investigated the extent to which heart rate (HR) levels soon after a traumatic event predicted posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity assessed 6 weeks and 6 months later in child trauma victims. Methods: Participants consisted of 82 children (56 boys, 26 girls) aged 8-18 who were admitted to a…

The high prevalence of adverse health outcomes related to intimate partner violence (IPV) is well documented. Yet we know little about the pathways that lead to adverse health outcomes. Research concerning the psychological, biological, neurological, behavioral, and physiological alterations following exposure to IPV--many of which are associated…

Objective: To determine whether infants have a traumatic response to intimate partner violence (male violence toward their female partner; IPV) experienced by their mothers, two questions were explored: (1) Is the number of infant trauma symptoms related to the infant's temperament and the mother's mental health? (2) Does severity of violence…

This paper attempts to explore the nature and consequences of early trauma on the mental development of a 9-year-old boy I have called Luke. The traumatic event occurred within the context of a more chronic and ongoing trauma, which was due to the lack of receptive and containing parental figures. The combination of these two kinds of traumatic…

Violence among students at school is an ever-growing problem. Bullying can be defined as all forms of repeated physical or mental violence performed by an individual on another person who is not capable of defending him/herself (Roland & Idsoe, 2001). The three studies conducted here reveal some of the characteristics and implications of this type…