A Person-Centered Approach to Examining Polytraumatization Among Traumatized and Bereaved Youth

The current study examined how polytraumatization classes predicted mental health outcomes among a sample of treatment-seeking, traumatized, and bereaved youth. A latent class analysis identified that a four-class model with the following classes fit the data best:Violence-Exposed,characterized by exposure to community violence and bereavement by homicide (11.1%), Polytrauma, characterized by exposure to multiple types of trauma (16.5%),Long-Term Illness Bereavement, characterized by bereavement by long-term illness (21.1%), andSudden Bereavement, characterized by bereavement by short-term illness or accident (51.3%). Preliminary analyses identified older children in thePolytraumaclass, more girls in theLong-Term Bereavementclass, and more Black youth in theViolence-Exposedclass. ThePolytraumaclass was characterized by higher rates of posttraumatic stress symptoms; however, classes did not differ significantly on maladaptive grief, depression, or suicidality. Results highlight the importance of considering subgroups of traumatization among highly traumatized and bereaved youth when implementing mental health screening and treatment.