Health Matters

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The unique mental health needs of school shooting survivors

By Alice Park

Senior Health Correspondent

The third school shooting of the year in the U.S.—this time in an elementary school—exposes the uncomfortable reality that we’re creating a generation of young survivors. The trauma these children experience, and the challenges they face in processing such horror, requires specialized mental health support, experts say. I spoke to psychologists who worked with students from the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012 about the strategies they use to help the youngest children cope with senseless violence. Here are a few of the most poignant takeaways:

Young children may not be able to adequately process an emotionally traumatic experience, so they might complain of physical symptoms like stomach aches and headaches, or develop clingy attachments to loved ones instead.
Drawing and play can help children express their reactions to their experience.
Researchers still don’t know what lasting impact exposure to school violence could have on children’s development, and how it will affect their sense of safety and trust.

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AN EXPERT VOICE

"Stress is put in this medical basket, and yet stress is an absolutely normal human response. We all have a stress response—and thank god we have a stress response, because when there’s a threat out there or a big challenge, we need to be able to act and think and do things in response to that."

—Christina Maslach, professor of psychology (emerita) at the University of California, Berkeley

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Today's newsletter was written by Alice Park and Jamie Ducharme, and edited by Angela Haupt.

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—Christina Maslach, professor of psychology (emerita) at the University of California, Berkeley