Background

Risk factors exploring the link between trauma and Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have been extensively explored in adults, however, less is known about child and adolescent populations.

Methods

The current meta-analysis aimed to systematically evaluate and summarise the child focused literature to estimate the strength of the relationship between social support and PTSD symptoms following traumatic events.

Results

Fifty primary studies reporting an effect size for the relationship between total social support scale or a source of social support with PTSD were included. A small effect size was found for the relationship between social support and PTSD (r = -0.12, 95% CI -0.16 to -0.07, k = 41), with large heterogeneity (I² = 90.3%). The effect sizes between peer support (r = -0.18, 95% CI -0.10 to -0.25, k = 12), family support (r = -0.16, 95% CI -0.09 to -0.24, k = 13) and teacher support (r = -0.20, 95% CI -0.15 to -0.24, k = 5) and PTSD were also small. Moderator analyses indicated that studies reporting on participants exposed to abuse (r = -0.25) and correlations based on univariate data (r = -0.14) had higher correlations and medium heterogeneity. The main effect size was robust to publication bias and study quality.

Limitations

The cross-sectional design of the studies limits the findings and future research using prospective and longitudinal design would help to explain the relationship between social support and PTSD further.

Conclusions

The current review suggests that social support may only play a small role in protecting against PTSD and future research may benefit from exploring the link between post-trauma cognitions and social support.

中文翻译：

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儿童青少年社会支持与创伤后应激障碍的相关性：荟萃分析

背景

探索创伤与创伤后应激障碍 (PTSD) 之间联系的风险因素已在成人中得到广泛探索，但对儿童和青少年人群知之甚少。

方法

当前的荟萃分析旨在系统地评估和总结以儿童为中心的文献，以估计创伤事件后社会支持与 PTSD 症状之间关系的强度。

结果

50 项主要研究报告了总社会支持量表或社会支持来源与 PTSD 之间关系的影响大小。发现社会支持与 PTSD 之间的关系的效应量较小（r  = -0.12，95% CI -0.16 至 -0.07，k  = 41），具有较大的异质性（I ² = 90.3%）。同伴支持（r  = -0.18, 95% CI -0.10 to -0.25, k  = 12）、家庭支持（r  = -0.16, 95% CI -0.09 to -0.24, k  = 13）和教师支持之间的影响大小( r  = -0.20, 95% CI -0.15 到 -0.24, k = 5) 和 PTSD 也很小。主持人分析表明，报告受虐待参与者的研究 ( r  = -0.25) 和基于单变量数据的相关性 ( r  = -0.14) 具有更高的相关性和中等异质性。主效应大小对发表偏倚和研究质量具有稳健性。

限制

研究的横断面设计限制了研究结果，使用前瞻性和纵向设计的未来研究将有助于进一步解释社会支持与 PTSD 之间的关系。

结论

目前的评论表明，社会支持在预防 PTSD 方面可能只发挥很小的作用，未来的研究可能会受益于探索创伤后认知与社会支持之间的联系。