Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms of Chinese Rural Children and Adolescents Surviving the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake Assessed Using CRIES

Posttraumatic stress symptoms in Chinese rural children and adolescents were examined after the May 12 Wenchuan earthquake. Analysis showed that three factors were identified, namely, avoidance, intrusion and arousal, resembling those in the studies with Western samples. Gender difference on the posttraumatic stress symptoms was not significant. Moderate negative correlation coefficients between posttraumatic stress symptoms scores and mental health scores were found, indicating that the severer the posttraumatic stress symptoms were, the worse the mental health was.