Parental response to child injury: examination of parental posttraumatic stress symptom trajectories following child accidental injury.

OBJECTIVE Trajectory analyses were used to empirically differentiate patterns of posttraumatic stress symptoms in parents following child accidental injury and explore the relationship between parent and child recovery patterns. METHOD Parent (n = 189) self-reported symptoms from acute to 2 years post accident were examined to (1) identify distinct parent symptom trajectories; (2) identify risk factors; and (3) explore the patterns of children and parents together. RESULTS Analysis revealed three distinct symptom trajectory groups for parents: resilient (78%); clinical level acute symptoms that declined to below clinical level by 6 months (recovery 8%); and chronic subclinical (14%). Children of resilient parents were most likely to be resilient. Half of the children of parents with chronic subclinical trajectories were likely to have chronic trajectories. CONCLUSION Clinicians cannot rely only on clinical level symptoms in parents to identify high risk families but include families where the parent has subclinical level symptoms.