Guilt is associated with acute stress symptoms in children after road traffic accidents

Figures & data

Table 1 Descriptive statistics for ASD symptoms and diagnosis

Dissociation (cluster B)
% meeting DSM-IV criteria	12.9
Mean number of symptoms (SD)	0.87 (1.18)
Mean symptom severity (SD)	6.63 (5.88)
Intrusion (cluster C)
% meeting DSM-IV criteria	50.5
Mean number of symptoms (SD)	1.27 (1.58)
Mean symptom severity (SD)	8.61 (8.29)
Avoidance (cluster D)
% meeting DSM-IV criteria	20.8
Mean number of symptoms (SD)	0.21 (1.25)
Mean symptom severity (SD)	1.79 (2.30)
Hyperarousal (cluster E)
% meeting DSM-IV crieria	51.5
Mean number of symptoms (SD)	1.00 (1.25)
Mean symptom severity (SD)	7.29 (7.30)
All four symptom clusters
% meeting DSM-IV criteria for full ASD	3.0
% meeting DSM-IV criteria for subsyndromal ASD	16.8
Mean ASD total symptom severity (SD)	24.33 (19.76)

N=101. ASD, acute stress disorder; DSM-IV, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (APA, 2000).

Table 2 Summary of intercorrelations for independent variables and ASD severity

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
1. Female sex	–
2. Child age	−0.03	–
3. SES	−0.10	0.01	–
4. Injury severity score	−0.11	0.06	0.03	–
5. Inpatient treatment	−0.07	0.05	−0.06	0.67**	–
6. Loss of consciousness	0.02	0.06	−0.07	0.35**	0.34**	–
7. Guilt	−0.05	0.21*	0.11	0.00	−0.02	0.15	–
8. Pretrauma psychopathology	0.06	0.12	0.10	−0.19	−0.20	−0.04	0.05	–
9. PTSS mother	0.15	−0.08	−0.08	0.04	0.18	0.33**	−0.03	0.22*
10. Child ASD severity	0.28**	0.17	−0.31**	−0.04	−0.10	0.13	0.15	0.13	0.36**

Spearman correlation coefficients. N=84–101. ASD, acute stress disorder; SES, Socioeconomic status; PTSS, posttraumatic stress symptoms. *p<0.05. **p<0.01.

Table 3 Summary of multiple regression analysis with ASD severity as dependent variable

	B	SE B	β	p
Female sex	0.77	0.37	0.19	0.04
Child age	0.09	0.07	0.12	0.20
SES	−0.13	0.08	−0.16	0.10
Injury severity score	0.00	0.04	0.00	0.99
Inpatient treatment	−0.95	0.42	−0.23	0.03
Guilt	0.63	0.26	0.22	0.02
Pretrauma psychopathology	−0.19	0.38	−0.05	0.61
PTSS mother	0.10	0.02	0.49	0.00

N=82. ASD, acute stress disorder; SE B, standard error of the regression coefficient; SES, Socioeconomic status; PTSS, posttraumatic stress symptoms. R ²=0.42, R ² adjusted=0.36, F(8)=6.75, p<0.001.

Table 4 Summary of multiple regression analyses with ASD severity clusters B–E as dependent variables

	Cluster B (dissociation)				Cluster C (intrusion)				Cluster D (avoidance)				Cluster E (hyperarousal)
	B	SE B	β	p	B	SE B	β	p	B	SE B	β	p	B	SE B	β	p
Female sex	0.36	0.22	0.16	0.11	0.68	0.29	0.22	0.02	0.27	0.17	0.13	0.12	0.35	0.31	0.11	0.26
Child age	0.08	0.04	0.18	0.08	0.07	0.06	0.12	0.21	−0.12	0.03	−0.31	0.00	0.13	0.06	0.22	0.03
SES	−0.09	0.05	−0.19	0.06	−0.06	0.06	−0.10	0.33	−0.01	0.04	−0.03	0.77	−0.08	0.07	−0.12	0.25
ISS	0.06	0.03	0.26	0.02	−0.04	0.04	−0.13	0.23	−0.01	0.02	−0.04	0.67	−0.03	0.04	−0.09	0.45
Inpatient treatment	−0.41	0.26	−0.18	0.11	−0.76	0.34	−0.25	0.03	−0.54	0.20	−0.27	0.01	−0.35	0.36	−0.11	0.36
Guilt	0.29	0.16	0.18	0.07	0.45	0.21	0.21	0.03	0.41	0.12	0.30	0.00	0.34	0.22	0.16	0.13
Pretrauma psych	−0.29	0.23	−0.13	0.21	−0.16	0.30	−0.05	0.59	−0.23	0.18	−0.11	0.20	0.39	0.32	0.13	0.22
PTSS mother	0.05	0.01	0.42	0.00	0.06	0.02	0.37	0.00	0.05	0.01	0.52	0.00	0.05	0.02	0.34	0.00
	F(8)=5.10, p<0.001				F(8)=5.41, p<0.001				F(8)=8.92, p<0.001				F(8)=4.16, p<0.001
	R ^2 adj.=0.29				R ^2 adj.=0.30				R ^2 adj.=0.44				R ^2 adj.=0.24

N=82. ASD, acute stress disorder; SES, socioeconomic status; ISS, injury severity score; Pretrauma psych, pretrauma psychopathology; PTSS, posttraumatic stress symptoms; R ² adj., R ² adjusted. Dependent variables are not normally distributed.