Impact of trauma on coping behavior of children

Abstract

Childhood trauma has short- and long-term impacts on different aspect of life. It can also impact the coping responses and related behavior of children. Study on the relation between childhood trauma and coping behavior is an important area of research in this regard. Despite, increasing work on this area in global arena, little focus in this area of research has been observed in Bangladesh. This research aimed to gain insight into the way different types of traumas influence the coping behavior among children. The specific objectives were, i) to find out impact of trauma on coping behavior among children, and ii) to find out the correlates of coping behavior of children. A quantitative cross sectional survey design with purposively selected 398 participants from 14 districts was used. With an age range of 9 to 13 years, mean (M=11.28), the participants included approximately similar number of male and female children (with a slightly higher number of boys, 54.5%). Fourteen practicing psychologists were recruited for data collection. Trauma experience was found among 98.49% of the participating children. In this study total 21 type of trauma and 14 types of coping were analyzed. Among these, 17 types of traumas, showed significant impact on different types of coping behaviors of children. The most common form of trauma for children was trauma from animal attack (n=201) followed by trauma from death of a close person (n=140). Trauma caused by the death of a close person employed the maximum numbers of coping behaviors (10). Furthermore, trauma from experience and/or witnessing of hijack utilized a variety of coping behaviors (8). Most of the trauma experiences of children indicated change in multiple types of coping. Nevertheless, trauma from animal attack, X earthquake, separation from family and assault indicated changed in single type of coping. Trauma from animal attack and earthquake showed change in coping through physical release of emotion and trauma from separation from family and assault manifested change in coping through control. It should be noted here that the study was conducted during COVID-19 pandemic period and obviously influence of trauma associated with COVID-19 was observed. Children employed a wide variety of coping mechanisms (up to 11 types of coping) in response to trauma associated with COVID-19. Problem-focused coping was found to be the most commonly utilized coping strategy which were related to eight types of trauma experiences. Coping behavior of children was also influenced by different predictors besides specific trauma experiences. The most influential predictors for different type of coping were prosocial behavior of children, that was found to be a significant predictor for all the coping except for physical release of emotion and distraction strategies. Furthermore, PTSD symptoms, number of trauma experience, mother’s education, and intensity of trauma were also found to be influential predictor for most of coping types. This research provides an overall understanding of how different trauma changes coping behavior of children and how coping behaviors can be predicted by different corelates. The results suggest to focus on develop a strategy of how children can develop healthy coping behavior in their life.