Avoidance strategies in school-age children who have witnessed domestic violence and their pattern of narrative report over time: Implications for the development of posttraumatic stress disorder

The present study was designed to assess children's memory for a recent domestic violence incident over time, as well as the relationship between memory, level of violence exposure, and symptoms of PTSD and dissociation. Thirty-two school-age children (ages 8-12) who had witnessed domestic violence were asked to provide four narratives across three time periods. One of the narratives centered on a witnessed episode of domestic violence, while the other three were neutral and happy stories. For all children, individual difference data was gathered on general memory ability. The Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children was completed by children and mothers at Time I and Time 3. Children also were administered the Child Memory Scales.;Results indicated that mothers and children were reporting differently across time on clinical symptoms, with children reporting more symptoms than mothers observed. Despite difference in level of symptoms, PTSD and dissociation correlated at each time point for mother and child respondents. Dissociation was correlated with number of dissociative narrative themes in the child's domestic violence account. The children's accounts of domestic violence showed more dissociative themes and lost more detail over time than did other stories. The children who mentioned the most fear-related detail in their domestic violence story dropped the most detail in these stories over time. Children with the highest level of dissociation at Time 1 showed the most negative emotion in their trauma narratives at Time 3. Results were discussed for their implications in the use of multiple respondents for child assessments, and for their theoretical implications relating to dissociation and child trauma.