The effects of the 1999 Turkish earthquake on young children: analyzing traumatized children's completion of short stories.

The purpose of this exploratory study was to determine whether projective techniques could identify long-term consequences among children stemming from exposure to a traumatic event. The first group of children (n = 53; 26 female, 27 male) experienced 2 major earthquakes at age 7, 3 months apart, in Turkey, while a similarly matched control group (n = 50; 25 female, 25 male) did not. Both groups of children (current age: 9) completed a series of short stories related to disastrous events. Results indicated that the traumatized group evinced a range of trauma-related symptoms 2 years after experiencing the earthquakes.