Ouch… and… let’s try again

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Twitter is a fantastic tool to build a prospering (trauma) research community. At least, that’s what I tried to make you believe :-).

The main arguments? It’s an ideal platform for sharing new publications, brainstorming on how to solve difficulties in your research, and finding support.

Two beautiful examples of active communities are #phdchat and #hcsmanz (although the latter is not focused on research per se, it does discuss it).

I received many positive reactions on the post (and on it’s succesor How to start with Twitter when you are a trauma researcher), including a number of people who joined Twitter (yes!). Continue reading →

The first trauma research Tweet chat

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Are you a researcher interested in traumatic stress and recovery? Come join the first trauma research Tweet chat!

It takes place at the end of February, depending on your preferences (cast your vote here!).

This post gives you all the details on how to participate. Continue reading →

8 Tips for Developing Preventive Interventions for Children Exposed to Acute Medical Events

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This is a guest post by Dr. Meghan Marsac. Meghan is a behavioral researcher and the Director of Training at the Center for Injury Research & Prevention at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Meghan has recently led the development of Coping Coach, a web-based video game for children experiencing acute traumatic stress, and The Cellie Coping Kit, a toolkit for children with chronic diseases and their families.    

As a field, we have made significant progress in developing models and identifying key risk factors associated with the development of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in children who experience  acute medical traumatic events (see these key publications). Additionally, we have given much attention to the evaluation of preventive interventions. For example, our team has recently evaluated After The Injury, a web-based intervention for parents of injured children.

However, a standard process for the development of preventive interventions is less clear, and therefore this post provides you with some starting points. Below is a list of tips to consider and questions to ask when beginning to develop a new preventive intervention:

1. Identify the problem and purpose of the intervention

  • What is the problem that needs addressed? 
  • What specific behaviors are the focus of the intervention? Continue reading →

How to start with Twitter when you conduct trauma research

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Last week I argued that academics studying psychological trauma should join Twitter because it helps & builds the research community.

This week I explain how to start with Twitter and I invite you for a live Tweet chat.

A few examples of interesting tweets in the past few days:

Setting up 

Setting up your Twitter account is easy. Go to www.twitter.com and within 3 minutes you’re up and running Continue reading →

4 Meta-analyses of predictors of PTSD in children: An overview

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One of the main questions of child trauma psychologists is which children are most vulnerable for PTSD after a traumatic event. The answer would help us to develop interventions that address causes of distress and to focus on the children most in need.

Recently, a fourth meta-analysis on predictors of posttraumatic stress in children has been published, which makes it interesting to compare findings and methods (yes, in that order, for busy people). It gives clinicians insight in risk factors for PTSD and it shows academics what needs to be studied in the next few years.

These are the four meta-analyses I know of, published over a period of 6 years: Kahana et al. (2006), Cox et al. (2008), Alisic et al. (2011), and Trickey et al. (2012). In a nutshell, the reviews combined correlational effect sizes to see which risk factors are associated with children’s posttraumatic stress symptoms. Their methods varied, which I will summarize below, but the findings converge to a number of interesting conclusions. Continue reading →