Children’s Symptoms in the Wake of Challenger: A Field Study of Distant-Traumatic Effects and an Outline of Related Conditions

OBJECTIVE: The Challenger space shuttle explosion in January 1986 offered an opportunity to determine what, if any, symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and bereavement normal latency-age children and adolescents would develop after a distant, horrifying event. METHOD: With a structured interview, the authors assessed the symptoms of 153 randomly selected children from Concord, N.H., and Porterville, Calif. Responses were statistically compared between East Coast children, who saw the event on television and who generally cared more about the teacher aboard Challenger, and West Coast children, who heard about it first; between latency-age children and adolescents; and between children seen 5–7 weeks later and those same children seen 14 months later. RESULTS: More than 60% of the subjects feared at least one stimulus related to Challenger within the first 5–7 weeks of the explosion. The East Coast and latency-age groups appeared significantly more symptomatic than did the West Coast and adolescent groups. Over the 14-month study period, most symptoms dramatically faded. However, adolescents’ diminished expectations for the future in general increased, and latency-age children’s changed approach to space careers held relatively steady. Three East Coast latency-age children met the DSM-III-R symptom requirements for PTSD in 1986; no children met these in 1987. CONCLUSIONS: Children’s symptomatic patterns after Challenger relate to the patterns for PTSD listed in diagnostic manuals and to three symptoms not in the DSM-IV list. To the authors, distant traumas appear to be one of a newly defined spectrum of trauma-related conditions that include relatively evanescent symptoms and a few longer-lasting ones. These symptoms may affect large numbers of normal children.