Epidemiology of Traumatic Experiences in Childhood
Date
2014
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Publisher
Child and adolescent psychiatric clinics of North America
Abstract
Prevalence and incidence of traumatic experiences among specified groups are the most basic pieces of epidemiologic information. Prevalence denotes the number of individual children experiencing a particular type of traumatic event within a certain time period, such as from birth to age 18 or within the past year. Incidence refers to the number of incidents or cases of a trauma type that occurs within a specified time period, such as within the past year, regardless of the number of affected people. Because children and youth may experience more than 1 incident over a time period, incidence rates usually exceed prevalence rates. For example, in a victimization survey of a nationally representative sample of 4008 adult women, 339 of the women indicated they had experienced at least 1 completed rape before the age of 18 years, a childhood rape prevalence rate of 85 per 1000 women.1 However, because many had experienced more than 1 assault, the 339 victims described 438 incidents of completed rape in childhood, a childhood rape incidence rate of 109 per 1000 women. Therefore, distinguishing whether epidemiologic reports are describing prevalence or incidence rates occurring in which time periods is important to understanding and comparing results across studies. Unfortunately, despite the importance of epidemiologic information, obtaining precise estimates of the prevalence and incidence of different types of potentially traumatic events that can occur in childhood is actually problematic. This difficulty is due to several factors, including the inherent nature of some of the types of traumatic events that children experience, the assets available to the field for detecting and counting events, and confounding methodological issues between studies. Understanding these problems is necessary to interpreting the available information and drawing proper conclusions. Some of the reasons for the difficulty in understanding the epidemiology of child trauma are discussed herein. (Author Introduction)
Description
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Keywords
child abuse, occurrence, rates, patterns, review
Citation
Saunders, B. E., & Adams, Z. W. (2014). Epidemiology of traumatic experiences in childhood. Child and adolescent psychiatric clinics of North America, 23(2), 167-184.