Bombing scarred children beyond norm, research says

By Jim Killackey

Published: April 17, 2005

Researchers who wanted to know how badly Oklahoma City schoolchildren were traumatized by the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building determined the best way simply was to ask them.

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Drs. Robin Gurwitch and Betty Pfefferbaum of the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center interviewed 4,400 Oklahoma City public school students in grades three through 12 to evaluate their reactions to the bombing.

Among that number were 40 children at the YMCA across the street from the Murrah Building.

Adults are "terrible at spotting children who are hurting," Gurwitch said.

They also wanted to gauge the relationship between how much disaster-related television the children watched and their overall well-being.

Gurwitch and Pfefferbaum found that significant numbers of children worried after the bombing about the safety of their families. Many couldn't calm down or couldn't concentrate on schoolwork.

Symptoms lasted from seven weeks to 10 months for elementary students, Gurwitch said.

"What we found is that these schoolchildren with problems after the bombing needed considerable counseling for a longer time period than what was originally thought," Gurwitch said.

Findings were used to help New York schoolchildren after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

A treatment manual was developed with help from the Children's Medical Research Institute.

"We've set a gold standard for working with a community and its schoolchildren after a disaster, after a trauma," Gurwitch said.

Pfefferbaum and Gurwitch explored what continued television viewing of a disaster does to children. They found that children became very upset and felt threatened because they didn't see the news story as one event. The repeated showing made the children feel as though multiple events all looked alike.

That information, according to the OU researchers, became very valuable in later disasters as parents were advised to turn off the television so children would not constantly be exposed to the psychological trauma.

"After the bombing, we recognized that the goals of terrorism were broad and extended beyond the death, injury and individual experiences of those directly exposed. The goal of terrorism is to affect whole communities and our society at large," Pfefferbaum said.

Extensive and explicit coverage of a trauma, Pfefferbaum said, "shouldn't occur in association with children's programming."

"In these situations, where news becomes drama, we should consider limiting and monitoring children's exposure, monitoring their reactions, and helping them process what they see and hear," Pfefferbaum said. "We need to provide opportunities for them to discuss these events. Perhaps, this applies to adults, as well."