Abstract:
Recently, a new diagnostic construct, developmental trauma disorder (DTD), was proposed to describe the effects of chronic exposure to
violence in combination with disruptions in caregiving systems. This study uses archival data to field test the consensus proposed diagnostic
criteria for DTD in a sample of urban children (N = 214). Children with complex trauma histories as defined in the proposed DTD Criterion
A were much more likely to meet the proposed DTD symptom criteria than children who did not meet the exposure criterion. This field
trial of the proposed DTD criteria suggests that the proposed construct of DTD is useful for describing the symptoms induced by ongoing
traumatic stressors and disrupted caregiving and that the proposed symptom criteria can differentiate children with histories of exposure to
developmental trauma from other trauma-exposed children.