Trauma Exposure and Mental Health in a Community Sample of Children and Youth.

Clinical Impact Statement Our study explores the mental health implications of childhood trauma in a nationally representative community sample. Although trauma exposure was less common compared with high-risk samples, it was nevertheless associated with youths' self-report of internalizing mental health concerns. Anxiety was higher among children who were female, were older in age, and experienced accidental trauma. Depressed mood was elevated in children who were female, younger males, and those who experienced interpersonal trauma. Understanding these factors provides insight for prevention and treatment measures that can be applied in childhood to potentially mitigate the impact of psychopathology in adult years. Objective: Childhood trauma is common and has implications for mental health. Research conducted retrospectively with clinical samples of adults and prospectively with high-risk samples of children has identified factors that moderate negative mental health sequelae (e.g., age, gender, nature and amount of trauma). Presently, however, there is a paucity of research examining mental health outcomes, and potential moderators of these outcomes, that may be associated with the experience of trauma among children in the general community. Method: To address this knowledge gap, the present study analyzed data from youth aged 8-17 years in the Nathan Kline Institute-Rockland Sample, a publicly available repository of information collected from a nationally representative sample of participants across the life span. We report the frequency and nature of trauma in our sample; bivariate correlations between trauma, demographic variables, and mental health outcomes; and hierarchical regressions in which these outcomes were modeled as a function of multivariate predictors. Results: Anxiety was elevated in older youth and in females who experienced more cumulative trauma, particularly when trauma was accidental in nature. Conversely, increased depressed mood was associated with more cumulative trauma for females regardless of age and for younger boys-findings that were driven by the experience of interpersonal trauma for both genders. Conclusions: Our investigation demonstrates that although the prevalence of trauma is lower among children in the general community, the negative impact of trauma experiences on children's anxiety and mood remains significant.