Psychic trauma in children: observations following the Chowchilla school-bus kidnapping

Abstract

Twenty-three children involved in a school-bus kidnapping were studied from 5 to 13 months following the event. Each child suffered posttraumatic emotional sequelae. The author found that the children suffered from initial misperceptions, early fears of further trauma, hallucinations, and "omen" formation. Later they experienced posttraumatic symptoms consisting of posttraumatic play, reenactment, personality change, repeated dreams (including predictive dreams and those in which they died), fears of being kidnapped again, and "fear of the mundane." Differences between child and adult response to psychic trauma are discussed.