Citation

Meyer A, Danielson CK, Danzig AP, Bhatia V, Black SR, Bromet E, Carlson G, Hajcak G, Kotov R, Klein DN. J. Am. Acad. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry 2017; 56(5): 410-416.

Affiliation

Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, Publisher Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

10.1016/j.jaac.2017.02.005

PMID

28433090

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Although most people will experience a traumatic event at some point in their life, only some will develop significant psychological symptoms in the aftermath. In the current study, we use a preexisting longitudinal study located in Long Island to examine the impact of Hurricane Sandy on internalizing symptoms in a large sample of children. We focused on temperamental fear and a biomarker of risk for anxiety, the error-related negativity (ERN). The ERN is a negative deflection in the event-related potential (ERP) occurring when individuals make mistakes and is increased in anxious individuals.

METHOD: The final sample consisted of 223 children who had undergone an observational assessment of fear at age 3 years and an electroencephalogram assessment of the ERN at age 6 years. At the age 9 year assessment, internalizing symptoms were assessed, and then again after the hurricane (∼65 weeks later).

RESULTS: A significant three-way interaction among fearfulness, hurricane stressors, and the ERN in predicting posthurricane increases in internalizing symptoms suggested that children who were high in fear at age 3 years and experienced elevated hurricane stressors were characterized by subsequent increases in internalizing symptoms, but only when they were also characterized by an increased ERN at age 6 years.

CONCLUSION: These findings support a diathesis-stress model, suggesting that early temperament and prestressor biological markers confer risk for increased psychological symptoms following environmental stressors.

Copyright © 2017 American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

anxiety; biomarker; developmental psychopathology; error-related negativity; trauma