Trauma, PTSD, and Traumatic Grief among Palestinian Children

Aim: The aim of this study was to find the relationship between war traumatic experiences due to war on Gaza, PTSD, and traumatic grief in Palestinian children. Methods: The sample included randomly selected 374 children aged 6-16 years. Children completed measures of experience of traumatic events (Gaza Traumatic Checklist), Child Post Traumatic Stress Reaction Index, and Traumatic Grief inventory. Results: Palestinians children experiences variety of traumatic events. No sex differences in reporting trauma. Mean traumatic events reported by children was 12.80 traumatic events. The study showed that 9.3% of the participants lost someone during the war. Mean traumatic grief in boys was 19.96 and 18.29 in girls. For PTSD, 1.3% of children showed no PTSD, 7.2% reported mild PTSD reactions, 29.9% showed moderate PTSD reactions, and 61.5% showed severe to very severe PTSD reactions. Trauma exposure was significantly associated with PTSD. No sex differences in PTSD. Conclusions: This study revealed that children living in area of conflict and war are at risk of developing mental health problems. Study showed that children with traumatic grief need psychosocial support from families and community to enable them of passing through their grief. Moreover, parents have to be involved in all activities given to their children and to be part of such activities to enable them better communication with their children and being able of detecting children with pathological grief and enable them of helping children in overcoming the effect of grief and trauma.We are grateful to the team who collected the data under enormous difficulties. Also, our many thanks to families and children who participated in this study, for their openness in sharing such difficult issues. Also to Mr. Khalil Megdad for his work as statistician in this study