Do dysfunctional posttraumatic cognitions play a mediating role in trauma adjustment? Findings from interpersonal and accidental trauma samples of children and adolescents

Figures & data

Figure 1. Transactional Model of Coping with Trauma Adapted from Landolt, 2012, p. 81.

Table 1. Sociodemographic data and trauma-related information of the Swiss accidental and German interpersonal trauma samples.

	Accidental N = 114		Interpersonal N = 113
Characteristics	M or n	SD or %	M or n	SD or %	Statistics
Age, years at assessment	10.75	2.55	12.98	2.77	t(225) = −6.31,
					p < .001
Sex
Male	64	56.1	33	29.2	χ^2(1) = 16.83,
Female	50	43.9	80	70.8	p < .001
Living situation
With both	84	73.7	25	22.1	χ^2(2) = 79.75,
biological parents					p < .0 01
With one biological parent	19	16.7	57	50.4
Other relatives, foster care etc.	–	–	29	25.7
Not determined^a	11	9.6	2	1.8
Educational level mother
No obligatory	3	2.6	8	7.1	χ^2(3) = 62.20,
Obligatory	4	3.5	32	28.3	p < .001
Medium	25	21.9	30	26.5
Higher	72	63.2	14	12.4
Not determined^a	10	8.8	29	25.7
Educational level father
No obligatory	–	–	3	2.7	χ^2(3) = 52.75,
Obligatory	5	4.4	25	22.1	p < .001
Medium	16	14.0	25	22.1
Higher	76	66.7	17	15.0
Not determined^a	17	14.9	43	38.1
Trauma history
Single trauma type	81	71.1	13	11.5	χ^2(1) = 85.53,
Multiple trauma types	31	27.2	100	88.5	p < .001
Not determined^a	2	1.8	–	–
Number of trauma types	1.53	1.11	3.65	1.85	t(184.1) = −10.41,
					p < .001

Note. ^aNot determined: these participants could not be reliably classified in any category due to insufficient information.

Table 2. Comparison of measures (mean, SD, range) between the Swiss accidental and German interpersonal trauma samples.

		Accidental N = 114		Interpersonal N = 113
	Item range	M (SD)	n	M (SD)	n	Statistics
CPTCI item mean	1–4	1.36 (0.33)	109	2.35 (0.63)	111	t(166.5) = −14.56, p < .001
UCLA-RI item mean	0–4	0.59 (0.51)	110	2.20 (0.64)	110	t(206.8) = −20.62, p < .001
CDI item mean	0–2	0.21 (0.18)	105	0.78 (0.37)	111	t(162.4) = −14.41, p < .001
PTCI item mean	1–7	1.47 (0.53)	85	2.74 (1.07)	74	t(103.0) = −9.21, p < .001
PDS item mean	0–3	0.17 (0.26)	76	0.88 (0.66)	67	t(83.7) = −8.28, p < .001

Note. CPTCI = Child Post-Traumatic Cognitions Inventory; UCLA-RI = University of California at Los Angeles Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Reaction Index; CDI = Child Depression Inventory; PTCI = Post-Traumatic Cognitions Inventory; PDS = Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale.

Figure 2. Cross-sectional associations for the accidental trauma sample.

PTCs = dysfunctional posttraumatic cognitions. PTSS = posttraumatic stress symptoms. Trauma load displays the number of trauma types experienced. The parental educational level is the mean of the individual maternal and paternal educational levels. If this information was only available for one parent, his or her value was used as the parental educational level. Standardized coefficients are reported. Only significant paths are displayed. The model accounted for 56.9% (R² = .569, p < .001) of the variance in child PTSS, 26.5% (R² = .265, p = .003) of the variance in child depression, and 22.9% (R² = .229, p = .010) of the variance in child dysfunctional PTCs.

Figure 3. Cross-sectional associations for the interpersonal trauma sample.

PTCs = dysfunctional posttraumatic cognitions. PTSS = posttraumatic stress symptoms. Trauma load displays the number of trauma types experienced. The parental educational level is the mean of the individual maternal and paternal educational levels. If this information was only available for one parent, his or her value was used as the parental educational level. Standardized coefficients are reported. Only significant paths are displayed. The model accounted for 47.2% (R² = .472, p < .001) of the variance in child PTSS, 60.2% (R² = .602, p < .001) of the variance in child depression, and 12.3% (R² = .123, p = .093) of the variance in child dysfunctional PTCs.

Landolt, M. A. (2012). Psychotraumatologie des Kindesalters: Grundlagen, Diagnostik und Interventionen (2nd ed.). Göttingen: Hogrefe.

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Data availability statement

Given that the ethical committees agree, the datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.