The Dose of Exposure and Prevalence Rates of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in a Sample of Turkish Children Eleven Months After the 1999 Marmara Earthquakes

Abstract

Since Turkey is a centrally prime earthquake zone, Turkey’s children are at risk for developing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) caused by earthquake exposures and threats of anticipated earthquakes. Given the gaps in the literature and the risk to children living in Turkey, the present study was undertaken to investigate the severity and prevalence of PTSD in 4th and 5th grade Turkish children after the notorious 1999 earthquakes in the city of Sakarya. Data were collected in May 2000. The research focus was to compare results between high-impact trauma and low-impact trauma groups according to percentage, severity and the frequency of PTSD diagnosis. Group means were compared for mild, moderate, severe and very severe categories of PTSD diagnosis. High and low impact groups were not significantly different in any category; the number of children who met the PTSD requirement was almost the same in both groups in number and severity.