Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder characterized by intrusive recollections, avoidance of traumatic reminders, numbing of emotional responsiveness and persistent physiologic arousal following exposure to a traumatic stressor and associated with impairment in social or occupational functioning. PTSD in teen parents may increase the risk of child abuse and/or neglect through impairment of caretaking abilities. The purpose of this study was to estimate the prevalence of traumatic exposure and symptoms of PTSD in a population of 350 parents whose children are followed in a high risk pediatric clinic due to very young maternal age and socioeconomic disadvantage.

A sequential sample of 50 subjects was obtained by inviting parents to participate at the time of their child's clinic appointment. Participants completed a brief structured interview and the Impact of Events Scale-Revised(IES-R), a measure of symptom severity over the previous 7 days.

Sixty-six percent of subjects reported traumatic exposure. Thirty-six percent met criteria for past or current PTSD diagnosis. An additional twenty-eight percent reported some post-traumatic symptoms but did not meet full diagnositic criteria for PTSD. Analysis by age group showed a higher rate of traumatic exposure and lifetime PTSD diagnosis in the older group (20-24 yrs), but a greater likelihood of younger subjects (15 to 19 yrs) having a current rather than past diagnosis. Thirty-four percent of all subjects had sought help because of their symptoms and most found counseling useful.

Elevated IES-R scores correlated with past or current PTSD diagnosis. The group as a whole showed elevation of the subset of avoidance symptoms over intrusive or arousal symptoms, while help-seekers showed elevation of intrusive and arousal symptoms.

Identification of traumatic exposure and treatment of PTSD symptoms in teen parents may offer a focused intervention for educational, social service and medical providers to reduce the risk of child abuse and neglect.