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Assessing the Validity and Clinical Utility of a Developmental Trauma Diagnosis in Ethnic Minority Adolescents

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Abstract

Developmental Trauma Disorder (DTD), a proposed diagnostic construct designed to reflect symptoms common among multiply-traumatized youth, was examined in a population of primarily female, predominantly Hispanic and African-American adolescents seeking psychiatric treatment (N = 53). The study uses a mix of interview and self-report data to test the prevalence of DTD symptoms relative to PTSD symptoms in this sample as well as to differentiate the DTD symptoms from DSM-IV and DSM-5 PTSD. DTD symptomatology was found to be as prevalent in the sample as PTSD symptomatology and further, DTD was found to be distinct from PTSD These results add to the literature suggesting the utility and need for the addition of a DTD diagnosis to the DSM, as well as offer insight into a population that has not been heavily scrutinized under a DTD framework.

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Notes

  1. The South Bronx was rezoned in 2012 to the 15th Congressional district following the release of these 2010 census data.

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Author notes

  1. Alyce L. Foster

    Present address: NYU School of Medicine WTC Health Program Clinical Center of Excellence, New York, NY, USA

  2. Alec Miller

    Present address: Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, NY, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, The New School for Social Research, New York, NY, USA

    Alyce L. Foster, Wendy D’Andrea, Nicholas Fehertoi & C. J. Healy

  2. Department of Psychology, Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, NY, USA

    Alec Miller

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  1. Alyce L. Foster
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  2. Wendy D’Andrea
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Correspondence to Alyce L. Foster.

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All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation [institutional and national] and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. All information was collected as part of routine clinical care and data were culled from charts.

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Foster, A.L., D’Andrea, W., Fehertoi, N. et al. Assessing the Validity and Clinical Utility of a Developmental Trauma Diagnosis in Ethnic Minority Adolescents. Journ Child Adol Trauma 12, 479–488 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40653-019-00272-2

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