Time does not heal all wounds: Identifying children suffering from psychological trauma

Traumatic exposure is a common experience among children and may have severe and long lasting effects on child’s mental well-being and development. This dissertation reports on children who have been exposed to one or more potentially traumatic events during their lives and focuses on identifying those children suffering from psychological trauma. The results presented in this thesis expand current knowledge with regard to the definition of a traumatic event and the different traumatic stress profiles between single trauma and child maltreatment. It is found that children may regularly develop severe posttraumatic stress symptoms in the absence of a traumatic event as defined by the DSM-IV-TR and that the effects of child maltreatment tend to extend PTSD. Furthermore, this dissertation yields easy-to-use screening tools that can be implemented by health providers in order to identify children suffering from psychological trauma. These screening tools may help clinicians in assigning appropriate follow-up diagnostic and clinical care. Although it is recognized that there are a myriad of challenges and issues in the field of childhood trauma that are still in need of thorough investigation, it is hoped that this dissertation will raise increased awareness of the psychological impact of childhood trauma and will lead to enhanced screening as routine part of contact. In the end, this will help to improve the identification of children suffering from psychological trauma