Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma最新文献

The escalating indirect exposure to terrorism through media has contributed to rising mental health issues among adolescents. The terrorist attack on Army Public School Peshawar (APSP) in Pakistan has received immense media coverage and the violence shown has touched the lives of natives. The current study adopts an Interpretative phenomenological analysis to explore the impact of indirect exposure to terrorism through media-television and Facebook-on adolescents' mental health in relation to terrorist attack on APSP. Moreover, the effect of changes occurred in parents' behaviour and school settings after the stated terrorist attack were also considered. To gather data, six Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) were conducted with adolescents (N = 45) who were enrolled in educational institutes far from the epicentre of the attack and came to know about the attack through media. Acquired qualitative data was subjected to thematic analysis revealing that indirect exposure to terrorism through media negatively impact the mental health of adolescents. Likewise, the abrupt changes in school settings and parental behaviour cause disruption in their immediate environment that further impacts their well-being.

Trauma-specific care denotes best practice when working with individuals with histories of childhood abuse, maltreatment, or experiences of intimate partner violence. However, youth with autism spectrum disorder and exposure to intimate partner violence characterize a specific subpopulation of trauma-impacted individuals who present unique challenges for practitioners and researchers alike. The comorbidity of trauma and autism spectrum disorder raises a specific practice problem requiring an in-depth understanding of the complex interrelationship of childhood experiences of intimate partner violence, the associated traumatic sequelae, and the neurobiological characteristics of autism spectrum disorder. The current research on the intersectionality of intimate partner violence, trauma, and autism is limited. This paper draws attention to the practice implications of working with adolescent clients with both a history of trauma from childhood exposure to intimate partner violence and a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. The author utilizes a case study to contextualize presenting concerns, prioritize needs, and identify treatment outcomes. A systematized review is used to methodically review the literature on clinical interventions for youth with autism spectrum disorder and trauma. The aim is to draw attention to the gap in the literature as well as provide clinicians with a structured review of the literature on interventions for this unique population. Recommendations include research and tailored interventions to meet the developmental and concrete needs of the client in the present case study and perhaps others who are similarly situated. Clinical and research implications highlight the need for specialized care and further research to meet this underserved population.

The Syrian civil war became a catalyst for numerous psychological issues, especially among children who faced migration and exposure to violence. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) stands out as one of the most prevalent mental health problems among these young survivors. The research outcomes to be presented in this paper aim to investigate the efficacy of art therapy through the self-narrative approach in reducing PTSD symptoms among Syrian war-affected children aged 6 to 12. The study followed a semi-experimental design with a pre-test and post-test, using a control group. Twenty Syrian children from war-affected areas were selected for high scores on the scale that measures the intensity of trauma symptoms. Half received an art therapy intervention. The results revealed that Self-Narrative Art-Therapy significantly contributed to reducing PTSD symptoms, including re-experiencing, avoidance, numbing, and arousal, in Syrian war-affected children aged 6 to 12, making it a viable psychological intervention.

This study aimed to a) discuss the neurobiological mechanisms of depersonalization as arising from activation at the brainstem level and b) assess the effectiveness of deep brain reorienting psychotherapy (DBR) with a patient presenting with depersonalization-derealization disorder (DDD). In the first part of the paper, we discuss verbal abuse as a severe form of relational trauma and how it can be connected to depersonalization. It is argued that suddenly aversive experiences engage the brainstem locus coeruleus in widespread noradrenergic activation of the thalamus and cortex such that the balance of functioning within the cortex becomes disturbed and a subjective experience of chronic depersonalization results. In the second part, the single-case study aims to provide initial evidence of how the patient experienced and responded to DBR therapy. Pre- and post-treatment measures consisted of instruments to measure depersonalization, social anxiety symptoms and quality of life. After 43 DBR sessions, the participant's depersonalization and comorbid symptoms decreased significantly. Patients with DDD may benefit from DBR. Future research is required to address generalizability to a larger population.

Childhood maltreatment is associated with significant psychological distress and coping-related maladaptive behaviors that can extend into adulthood. Non-suicidal self-injury is one form of maladaptive coping characterized by engaging in the commission of self-harm. This study explored if coping with childhood maltreatment may manifest in different forms, including behavioral omission in which an individual harms themselves through a lack of self-care. We proposed the novel construct of self-deprivation as an omissive self-harming behavior. Self-deprivation is defined as engaging in low levels of self-care motivated by an intent to harm oneself. One hundred twenty adults (72% women; M age = 31.5) with reported childhood maltreatment were recruited from an online research platform using voluntary response sampling for our cross-sectional, survey-based study. Participants responded to questions about their trauma history, self-care behaviors, and the motivations underlying their decisions about such behaviors. We found a significant, negative relationship between history of childhood maltreatment and frequency of self-care (r(118) = -.210, p = .02). We then used PROCESS macro to examine the meditating role of an motivation to harm oneself. Consistent with the construct of self-deprivation, this association was significantly mediated by an intrapersonal motivation to harm oneself (ab = -.0692, CI [-.1605, -.0021]). These findings provided preliminary support for the novel construct of self-deprivation. Results have implications for both research and clinical practice, including evidence for omissive self-harming behaviors that upon future research may be relevant to the overall framework of self-harm. Further study with different methodologies and populations are needed to continue the exploration and boundaries of this construct.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40653-024-00667-w.

This review explores the existing literature on posttraumatic growth in children and adolescent survivors of trauma. The review follows 5 stages of Arksey and O'Malley's framework of a scoping review. Databases like PsychINFO, PubMed, ProQuest, Web of Science, and Google Scholar were searched for the articles. Of those retrieved, 35 met the criteria. The review findings suggest that the mean prevalence of growth in children and adolescent survivors ranges from 2.10 to 81.84 in the PTGI total scores, ranging from 0 to 105. The highest level of growth was consistently experienced in relation to other domains. Posttraumatic stress, social support, religious and cultural practices, coping strategies, rumination, and social support were suggested to be associated with posttraumatic growth.

Previous research indicates that over 60% of Americans have experienced at least one Adverse Childhood Experience, or ACE (Finkelhor et al., 2011; Merrick et al., JAMA Pediatrics, 172(11), 1038-1044, 2018). Exposure to direct or indirect violence in childhood can lead to an increased risk for polyvictimization (i.e., being victimized in multiple ways) and increased susceptibility to psychological distress in adulthood (Finkelhor et al., 2011). The CDC (2021b) recently recognized peer victimization as an ACE, which was not universally considered an ACE previously. Given the association between experiencing childhood polyvictimization and substantial health risks among adults (Hughes et al., The Lancet Public Health, 2(8), e356-e366, 2017), the present study sought to answer the questions: (1) are victimizing ACEs, peer victimization, and cyber victimization all independently related to psychological distress? and (2) Is there a gender difference in these associations? Young adults (N = 496; 58.7% female, 41.3% male, 60% White) completed self-report electronic surveys assessing current levels of psychological distress and retrospective accounts of exposure to victimizing ACEs, traditional peer victimization, and cyber victimization before the age of 18. Using hierarchical regression, victimizing ACEs, peer victimization, and cyber victimization were all individually related to psychological distress for both males and females. Gender interactions indicated that for males, the association between cyber victimization and psychological distress remained the same at all levels of cyber victimization, but for females, greater cyber victimization was associated with greater psychological distress, but the inverse relationship was found for males. Findings from this study suggest that victimizing ACEs, peer victimization, and cyber victimization are all related to higher psychological distress. When working with male and female clients, practitioners should be aware that most may have mental health difficulties regardless of the number of adverse events they have experienced. For females, cyber victimization was particularly associated with greater mental health challenges.

This study considers the experiences of young Black men who have been impacted by traumatic gun violence either directly through being shot or by witnessing gun violence. This study was completed to increase knowledge and awareness on the traumatic impacts of gun violence in the lives of young Black men, with the long-term purpose to use the knowledge to help build trauma informed programs young Black men who are survivors of gun violence. This study used a Constructivist Grounded Theory approach to conduct qualitative interviews with ten young Black men growing up in Toronto, Ontario, Canada who have been impacted by traumatic gun violence. The findings in this paper show how young Black men are impacted and cope with the experiences of gun violence in five ways: Isolation, Hypervigilance, Substance Use, Normalization, and Resilience. The discussion section outlines these findings, addressing how young Black men draw upon learned resiliency and "keep it moving" to manage the traumatic impacts. The implications section asserts the need for further qualitative research on young Black men's experiences of gun violence to find out what young Black men need to cope with traumatic gun violence. The conclusion states the need for further research and understanding on young Black men's experiences of gun violence. It encourages the need for accessible trauma informed spaces for young Black men to talk and process their emotions and experiences of gun violence as a profound step towards healing.

Characteristics of individuals with disruptive behavior disorders often include elevated externalizing behaviors such as impulsivity, defiance of authority and antagonism of social norms. Evidence shows that adolescents diagnosed with these types of disorders are particularly challenging to treat; however, therapies incorporating horses have shown some success. We examined the impact of an equine-assisted intervention compared to a non-manualized cognitive behavioral therapy in youth between 12- and 18-years old living in a residential childcare facility. Upon admittance, youth were administered three assessments: the Youth Self-Report, Adolescent Psychopathology Scale, and Basic Empathy Scale. Youth scoring in the clinical range for at least one externalizing subscale of the Youth Self-Report were assigned to equine-assisted intervention (EQI; N = 23) or non-manualized cognitive behavioral therapy (NM-CBT; N = 20) groups. Each group received a total of 7 h of treatment per week (three 2-hr group sessions and one 1-hr individual session) for 24 weeks. After 24 weeks of treatment, the same three assessments were administered a second time. There were no significant differences between the NM-CBT and EQI groups in the amount of change between assessments. A significant time effect was found for total externalizing behaviors in the Adolescent Psychopathology Scale and Youth Self-Report such that these measures were within the normal range after 24 weeks of treatment for participants in both groups.

Trauma-informed education is an internationally and widely adopted approach to support traumatized students in their needs in schools. In this two-year longitudinal pre-posttest design study, the outcomes of a school-wide trauma-informed approach during a baseline year and first year of implementation in two regular primary and six special primary and secondary schools were examined with six measurement waves. We examined students' perception of school class climate, more specifically class atmosphere, quality of student relationships, quality of teacher-student alliance and order in the classroom. In addition, we examined posttraumatic stress symptoms, internalizing, externalizing, attention and total behavioral problems, executive functioning, and resilience. Results of the piecewise latent growth curve models showed more positive scores for atmosphere in the classroom and resilience at the end of the first implementation year compared to the end of the baseline year. In addition, there was an increase in youth-reported classroom atmosphere during the implementation year. After the first year of implementing the trauma-informed educational approach initial modest positive outcomes begin to emerge.