Assessment of posttraumatic stress disorders in kindergarten children in Mosul City

الملخص AR

A descriptive study was carried out on kindergarten children in Mosul city for assessment of post traumatic stress disorders.

The sample of the study consisted of 372 child, chosen from (14) kindergarten in Mosul city for the period from 2nd January to 15th April 2004.

The data were collected by using teacher’s checklist which consisted of (24) items distributed to three areas (physiological, psychological and cognitive), and another (24) items for mother’s checklist distributed to the same above areas.

The validity of the study tool was done by presenting it to a panel of experts, while the reliability was done through test and retest, Pearson’s Coefficient Correlation was used, for mothers r=0.872 and for teachers, r=0.811.

The results of the study show of that there are real problems in all areas from the teacher’s and mother’s point's of view.

The cognitive problems come first in rank from the teacher’s point of view, while psychological problems come first in rank from mother’s point of view.

The study also revealed that there are no significant differences between the occurrence of PTSD and variables of study (age, sex and order in the family) from the teacher’s point of view, while from mother’s point of view, there are significance differences between the occurrence of PTSD and above variables The study recommends the importance of Providing safety for children, the most known victims of war, establish centers to lodge war victims’ children, and enhance the family’s role in attention of the child’s complaints through the social solidarity.