Interactive Relationship Between Parent and Child Event Appraisals and Child PTSD Symptoms After an Injury

The current study investigated the relationships between child and parent event-related appraisals and child posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms (PTSS) soon after the child's traumatic injury. Cross-sectional data were collected from 40 child emergency department (ED) patients and their caregivers following an unintentional injury. Hierarchical regression models were used to determine whether child event appraisals were related to child PTSS and the extent to which parent event appraisals moderated this relationship. Significant main effects were found for child event-related appraisals (i.e., of stressor severity, of whether their life had been permanently changed/destroyed, of heightened future danger, and of alienation) predicting child PTSD symptoms. Parent appraisal of alienation and of permanent change were the only parent appraisal variables that were significantly associated with child PTSS. Parent and child appraisals were not significantly correlated. Subsequent analyses revealed that parent appraisal of permanent change (beta = -.1.64, p < .01) moderated the relationship between child appraisal of permanent change and child PTSS. A similar significant interaction effect was found with child and parent appraisals of future danger (beta = -.30, p < .05). The current results support the role of parent event-related appraisals in the development of initial child PTSS and suggest that family-based interventions following injury should include components that address both parent symptoms and event-related appraisals.