New Publication in Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma!

Journal access link: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40653-026-00933-z

Personal access link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oe7Jy_OWIZWMUCEiCJi10OKWI7G8YvMG/view?usp=sharing

Paper Summary: Many young people who experience persistent posttraumatic stress symptoms are undiagnosed in part because their stressor exposure does not meet Criterion A (“Exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence...”; American Psychiatric Association, 2022, p. 302). In this study, we applied a novel, three-level framework based on increasingly strict stressor criterion to conceptualize stressor exposures and explore associated symptoms. We analyzed phone-administered baseline assessments of stressor exposure and posttraumatic stress symptoms for 438 caregiver-youth dyads seeking mental health treatment in U.S. community clinics. Some stressor types did not meet Criterion A but were reported as significant stressors. Fewer stressors met the increasingly strict severity criteria; yet there were cases of elevated symptoms for non-Criterion A stressors (n = 149). Our findings support applying a three-level framework to youth trauma exposures.