Primary Submission Category: Infants/children/youth
Trauma exposure among young children in rural Pakistan: Associations with mental health and cognitive functioning
Authors: Allison Frost Amanda Collins Joanna Maselko Siham Sikander
Presenting Author: Amanda Collins*
Exposure to trauma has deleterious effects on children’s emotional and cognitive development. The effect of trauma on child outcomes may vary based on child sex, with research showing that boys are more likely to experience trauma, but girls are more likely to show mental distress following trauma. The goal of this study is to test these associations among 6 year-old children in rural Pakistan. Participants included 888 mother-child dyads in the Bachpan cohort. Mothers reported on children’s lifetime trauma and current mental health symptoms, including total mental health difficulties, emotional problems, conduct problems, and anxiety. In addition, children completed a series of tasks measuring their verbal skills, memory, and inhibitory control. Mental health and cognitive outcomes were linearly regressed on number of traumatic events, controlling for family socioeconomic status, maternal childhood trauma, maternal depression, and TV/radio ownership.
90.5% of the sample reported exposure to at least one traumatic event. The most common events were death of a loved one (47%) and hearing about war or terrorism on the TV/radio (48%). On average, boys experienced more traumatic events (M=3.00) than girls (M=2.67). This was driven by boys being more likely than girls to experience an injury or hospitalization (30% vs. 21%) and being more likely to hear about war/terrorism on the TV/radio (52% vs. 43%).
Trauma was associated with increased total mental health difficulties (B=0.27, 95% CI:0.09, 0.45), emotional problems (B=0.11, CI:0.04, 0.19), conduct problems (B=0.12, CI:0.05, 0.19), and anxiety (B=0.20, CI:0.11, 0.29). There was a positive association between trauma and verbal skills; however, this was driven by the TV/radio item. There were no differences in the effect of trauma on mental health or cognitive function by child sex.
Results show that trauma exposure is common and may be an important predictor of mental health for young children in rural Pakistan.