Objective: Understanding judges' views is crucial to the successful adoption of a trauma-informed (TI) approach in the U.S. court system, yet little is known on this topic. We explored judges' attitudes of and experiences with TI practice to help fill this gap.
Method: We surveyed 91 North Carolina district court judges, assessing their attitudes related to TI practice, use of trauma-informed practices (TIPs), previous trauma education, and support for different justice goals. We conducted independent-samples t tests and Poisson regression analyses to compare attitudes, use of TIPs, and education experiences between judges working in juvenile justice and those not in juvenile justice; descriptive statistics to examine rates of engagement with different TIPs; and bivariate correlation analyses to assess associations between TI practice outcomes and justice goals.
Results: Analyses revealed more favorable attitudes toward a TI approach and greater engagement with trauma education among judges working in juvenile versus adult courts; TIPs with the lowest levels of engagement related to policies and procedures; and strong positive correlations between favorable TI practice attitudes and support for rehabilitation and restoration.
Conclusion: Findings highlight areas for growth in the movement to create more TI courts, such as strengthening support for TI practice in the adult criminal system and implementing TIPs related to policies, procedures, and outcomes, not just communication. Findings also support the connection between a TI approach and less punitive justice practices, signaling the potential role that TI judicial practice can play in shifting our legal system toward more transformative forms of justice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
Objective: Experiences of everyday discrimination are linked with mental health issues for sexual minority individuals, including posttraumatic symptoms (PTS), yet it is unclear whether experiences of discrimination are linked with PTS after accounting for the influence of traumatic life events. This study sought to increase understanding of the link between everyday discrimination and PTS, among sexual minority men.
Method: A sample of 290 gay men living in the United States completed an online survey including measures of traumatic life events, everyday discrimination, and PTS.
Results: Logistic regressions supported a link between everyday discrimination and meeting the cutoff for PTS, after accounting for traumatic life events. Furthermore, everyday discrimination was linked with higher scores on all symptom clusters of PTS.
Conclusions: Study results provide support for a link between everyday discrimination and PTS at levels exceeding clinical cutoffs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
Objective: Police officers are at heightened risk for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) due to frequent exposure to traumatic stressors. Early identification of PTSD symptoms is crucial for timely intervention. However, stigma and low utilization of mental health services create barriers to accessing care, which can be improved through the use of accessible, brief, and efficient screening instruments. The Primary Care PTSD for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition (DSM-5; PC-PTSD-5) scale is a brief, five-item self-report questionnaire demonstrating good reliability and validity in the identification of probable PTSD among veterans and civilians but has not yet been examined in first responder populations.
Method: In this study, we assess the psychometric properties of an adapted version of the measure (PC-PTSD-5 [0-20]) in a sample of U.S. police officers (N = 394), focusing on reliability, structural validity, measurement invariance, and convergent and discriminant validity.
Results: Internal consistency of the PC-PTSD-5 [0-20] was good (α = .87), with uniform item-total correlations ranging from .78 to .83. Confirmatory factor analysis supported a single-factor structure (comparative fit index = 0.97, Tucker-Lewis index = 0.94, root-mean-square error of approximation = 0.12 (90% CI [.08, .16]), standardized root-mean-square residual = 0.03) that was invariant between male and female officers, χ²(9, N = 394) = 2.72, p = .974, and across years of service, χ²(9, N = 394) = 9.02, p = .436, providing evidence of construct validity. The measure also demonstrated convergent and discriminant validity, showing varying degrees of correlational strength with 20 operational stressors, the strongest of which were with traumatic stressors (r = .52, p < .001).
Conclusions: These findings suggest the PC-PTSD-5 [0-20] may be a valuable tool for identifying PTSD symptoms in police officers, benefiting both clinical and research applications. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
Objective: This theoretical review proposes a three-phase process model of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and posttraumatic growth (PTG).
Method: By combining trauma-related theories, emotional regulation theories, social support theories, and empirical study findings to elucidate the mechanisms underlying PTSD and PTG, we then propose our model.
Results: The proposed model highlights the dynamic characteristics of the PTSD and PTG developmental processes as well as their coexistence and places equal emphasis on the roles of cognitive and emotional activities and social support in three distinct dynamic phases of PTSD and PTG. It emphasizes that PTSD and PTG share similar prerequisites but that these two outcomes later diverge and ultimately manifest via three distinct phases. The specific roles of cognitive regulation, emotional regulation, and social support, and the potential theoretical and practical implications of this model, are discussed.
Conclusions: This integrative and dynamic process model has the potential to advance scientific understanding of the mechanisms underlying PTSD and PTG. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
Objective: The present study aimed to examine the profile patterns of co-occurring posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), cognitive emotion regulation (CER), and disorganized attachment in traumatized adolescents. It also aimed to examine whether these adolescents with different profiles would differ in posttraumatic growth (PTG) and comorbid psychiatric symptoms after controlling for academic stress and egocentrism.
Method: Nine hundred and forty-nine (N = 949) adolescents were recruited from two secondary schools in China. They completed measures on PTSD, comorbid psychiatric symptoms, PTG, CER, disorganized attachment, and covariates of egocentrism and academic stress.
Results: Latent profile analysis identified a four-class model as the optimal solution: low trauma group (Class 1), adaptive copers (Class 2), moderate trauma group (Class 3), and high trauma group (Class 4). After controlling for demographics and levels of egocentrism and academic stress, Class 4 had more severe comorbid psychiatric symptoms than the other three classes. Class 3 had higher levels of comorbid psychiatric symptoms than Class 2 and Class 1, while these latter two were comparable in comorbid psychiatric symptoms. Conversely, Class 4 students had lower levels of PTG than individuals in the other three classes. Class 3 had similar levels of PTG to Class 1, and these two classes reported lower levels of PTG than Class 2.
Conclusions: Chinese adolescents may experience both negative and positive changes after stressful events. The extent of these psychological outcomes could vary depending on the adolescents' previous trauma experiences, emotion regulation, and attachment qualities. Implications for clinical practice were discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).