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. 2015 Oct:44:219-23.
doi: 10.1016/j.adolescence.2015.07.011. Epub 2015 Aug 21.

Brief report: Examining children's disruptive behavior in the wake of trauma - A two-piece growth curve model before and after a school shooting

Yue Liao  1 , Eleanor T Shonkoff  2 , Elizabeth Barnett  1 , C K Fred Wen  1 , Kimberly A Miller  1 , J Mark Eddy  3
Affiliations

Brief report: Examining children's disruptive behavior in the wake of trauma - A two-piece growth curve model before and after a school shooting

Yue Liao et al. J Adolesc. 2015 Oct.

Abstract

School shootings may have serious negative impacts on children years after the event. Previous research suggests that children exposed to traumatic events experience heightened fear, anxiety, and feelings of vulnerability, but little research has examined potential aggressive and disruptive behavioral reactions. Utilizing a longitudinal dataset in which a local school shooting occurred during the course of data collection, this study sought to investigate whether the trajectory of disruptive behaviors was affected by the shooting. A two-piece growth curve model was used to examine the trajectory of disruptive behaviors during the pre-shooting years (i.e., piece one) and post-shooting years (i.e., piece two). Results indicated that the two-piece growth curve model fit the data better than the one-piece model and that the school shooting precipitated a faster decline in aggressive behaviors. This study demonstrated a novel approach to examining effects of an unexpected traumatic event on behavioral trajectories using an existing longitudinal data set.

Keywords: Aggressive behavior; Disruptive behavior; Externalizing behavior; Growth curve model; School shooting; Traumatic events.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Trajectories of child disruptive behavior from 1994 (Wave 3) to 2002 (Wave 12) based on a one-piece growth curve model and a two-piece growth curve model
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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