Differences in attention and memory processes between children with and without post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Selective and alternant attention and immediate and logic memory differences between children with and without post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were researched. The study was conformed by a control group of 15 children (8 to 10 years) and an experimental group of 15 children victims of sexual abuse, with a diagnosis of PSTD (8 to 10 years). Attention was evaluated by two subscales of the WISC- R; and the Difference Perception Test; for memory, two subscales of the Luria Neuropsychological Diagnosis for children were used. Based on the analysis done by the Fisher test (f), results showed that there are significant differences at an alpha level of 0,05 in the selective and alternant attention and immediate and logic memory processes between the groups, being the control group executions better in both processes.