Citation

Pfefferbaum B, Moore VL, McDonald NB, Maynard BT, Gurwitch RH, Nixon SJ. J. Okla. State Med. Assoc. 1999; 92(4): 164-167.

Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1999, Oklahoma State Medical Association)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

10213967

Abstract

This study investigated the relative impact of various forms of exposure to the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing in middle and high school students seven weeks after the incident. We assessed 3210 youths with an instrument that probed for physical, television, and emotional exposure to the bombing and subsequent posttraumatic stress symptomatology and television reactivity. The majority of youths were exposed through physical proximity--hearing and/or feeling the blast--and through television viewing. These types of exposure, as well as emotional exposure, constituted important variables in the development of posttraumatic stress symptoms and television reactivity. Youths with immediate family casualties were more symptomatic than those without.

Language: en