After Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rican youths experience significant PTSD symptoms

Following the devastation of Hurricane Maria in 2017, 7 percent of school-aged children in Puerto Rico have significant symptoms of PTSD, according to a new study. Researchers surveyed nearly 100,000 children in grades 3-12 and found that more girls than boys reported experiencing such symptoms, which can include unwanted memories of the traumatic episode. The majority of the children saw houses damaged and had a friend or family member leave the island following the hurricane. A third of the children also said they perceived their lives to be at risk at some point during the hurricane. The researchers say they did not have pre-hurricane data, meaning they were unable to gather whether the event changed rates of PTSD in the children.