Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma最新文献

To examine the associations between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and children’s obesogenic behaviors (meeting recommendations for sleep duration and screen time) in a representative sample of U.S. children and adolescents. This study assessed data from the 2019–2020 National Survey of Children’s Health. Separate multinomial logistic regressions examined the likelihood of failing to meet sleep and screen time recommendations given individual and cumulative ACE scores. 15,581 children (48% female, 32% non-White) experienced one ACE, representing 32% of the analyzed sample. Parents reported financial hardship as the most prevalent ACE (48%). After adjusting for child race/ethnicity, sex of the child, highest education in the household, and child age, we found that participants with four or more ACEs were (1) age-specific sleep recommendations compared with participants with zero ACEs (OR 1.96; 95%CI = 1.64–2.35), and (2) more likely to fall short of meeting screen use recommendations compared with participants with zero ACEs (OR 1.61; 95%CI = 1.26–2.07). U.S. children and adolescents who have experienced four or more ACEs are significantly more likely to fall short of sleep and screen time recommendations compared to their counterparts who experienced zero ACEs. Given the strong associations between ACEs and health outcomes in adulthood, screening for ACEs may better inform practitioners when attempting to improve youth health outcomes.

Rationale

Trauma from child abuse and neglect requires specialised assessment and intervention, especially for those experiencing complex trauma. Unfortunately, what constitutes complex trauma is contentious, alongside growing criticisms of diagnostic categories and labels. Recent literature critiques the symptom clusters and diagnostic categories/labels approach compared to focusing on the concrete impacts and functional nature of behavioural responses to trauma in context.

Aims

This research aimed to assess the conceptual maturity of complex trauma for children and young people who have experienced abuse and neglect by discussing the concept with Australian experts. The research aimed to conceptualise complex trauma through a dimensional lens and impacts-based approach. The overall aim was to increase understanding of the development and maintenance of complex trauma and its distinctiveness from other types of trauma.

Method

Group interviews were conducted, and reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. A member-checking survey helped review and improve the findings.

Results

Findings suggest a vast array of impacts from complex trauma, that diagnostic boxes may not be right for complex trauma, and that the potentially chaotic cycle of complex trauma perpetuates issues. Results from this pilot indicate that complex trauma may be an immature concept for expert clinicians and researchers alike.

Conclusions

Despite assessing complex trauma as an emerging or even immature concept, the discussion generates direction forward and suggests further research avenues. Associated ideas and emerging concepts begin a conceptual discussion of complex trauma.

Objective: Analyse the mediation role of emotional competences on behavior problems in adolescents exposed to Armed-Conflict Childhood Adversities (ACCA). Method: Families with adolescent children who studied in three schools in the municipality of Soacha, Colombia, were invited to participate in the study. One hundred and sixty-one participants were selected and pooled into three groups according to their Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) scores: lower-ACE (LACE), higher-ACE (HACE), and ACCA using the Adverse Childhood Experiences Questionnaire for Adolescents (ACE-QA). The Emotion Recognition Task, the Empathy for Pain Task, and the Child Behavior Checklist assessed teenagers’ emotional functioning. Results: Teenagers exposed to ACCA more frequently experienced childhood adversities such as domestic violence, child abuse, and parental neglect. Moreover, these adolescents were less accurate in discriminating angry faces, reported higher control perception after social stressors, were more rigorous in punishing those who intentionally harmed others, and showed more internalizing behavior problems. In the mediational model, we found that: the control perception after social stress mediated the reduction of depressive symptoms in adolescents with ACCA history. Additionally, inaccuracy in perceiving angry faces and harsh punishment toward behaviors that intentionally harm others mediated the presence of thinking problems, anxiety, and rule-breaking behaviors. Conclusions: Colombian adolescents who experienced ACCA showed specific changes in their emotional competences, which mediate the parental report of behavioral problems. These results indicate the need for more focused interventions aimed at improving the emotional competences and mental health of adolescent victims of armed conflicts.

Research examining the influence of physical and emotional sibling violence on siblings’ relationships across the lifespan is scant. This exploratory research examined whether affect, behavior, and cognitions associated with closest-aged sibling relationships in childhood as well as the occurrence of behaviors associated with physical and emotional sibling violence in childhood impacted adult sibling relationships in a sample of 156 adults. Using the Lifespan Sibling Relationship Scale (Riggio J Soc Pers Relat 17(6):707–728, 2000), associations were found between all aspects of childhood and adulthood sibling relationships. Frequency of sibling violence behaviors correlated with Child Affect and Adult Behavior. Differences were found between females and males on Child Affect, Adult Behavior, and Frequency of Sibling Violence Behaviors. Regression models examined whether childhood sibling relationship quality (Child Affect, Child Behavior, Child Cognitions), frequency of sibling violence behaviors in childhood, and gender predicted Adult Affect, Adult Behavior, Adult Cognitions. Child Affect and Child Cognitions predicted Adult Affect, Child Behavior and gender predicted Adult Behavior, and only Child Cognitions predicted Adult Cognition. Frequency of physical and emotional sibling violence in childhood did not predict Adult Affect, Adult Behavior, or Adult Cognitions individually. However, frequency of physical and emotional sibling violence in childhood was associated with a total adult sibling relationship score when controlling for a total childhood sibling relationship score. Findings suggest the need for future research to consider the complexity of closest-aged sibling relationships across the lifespan and how physical and emotional sibling violence factors into how individuals perceive their relationships with siblings.

Witnessing violence between parents during childhood has an impact on individuals' attachment and romantic relationship behaviors. As a result, individuals have expectations according to the attitudes, beliefs, and values that constitute a healthy and unhealthy relationship, which they developed both their early and childhood experiences, and they can act accordingly. Therefore, this study aimed to qualitatively explore the way in which adult women who witnessing inter-parental intimate partner violence (IPV) in childhood, qualities characterize a romantic relationship in terms of being healthy and unhealthy, and their self-reflective statements about their relationships. The research was carried out according to a descriptive phenomenological design. The participants of the study consisted of 16 females aged between 23–58 (M = 40.62, SD = 11.67), 12 of whom were married and 4 of whom have a romantic relationship. According to the results of the analysis, the participants were able to reveal the characteristics that make up healthy and unhealthy relationships, but they stated problems with verbal and psychological violence in their relationships, open communication, and investment in the relationship. In addition, the participants expressed the conflict behaviors that they and their partners use. The findings are discussed with the literature studies and suggestions for future research are offered.

Child Abuse and Neglect (CAN) is extensively implicated as a risk factor preceding the development of Obsessive–Compulsive Personality Traits (OCPT). Nevertheless, the majority of individuals with a history of CAN do not go on to develop OCPT. To date, little research has investigated potential model networks that may help contribute to explaining why CAN sometimes leads to OCPT and not at other times. Thus, this study aimed to investigate whether attachment-anxiety, intolerance of uncertainty, and metacognition have indirect effects in the association between CAN and OCPT in various network models. Undergraduate psychology students (N = 291) participated in an anonymous 30-min online survey consisting of a series of self-report questionnaires regarding child abuse and neglect, attachment, intolerance of uncertainty, metacognition, OCPT, and depression. Bootstrapped serial mediation revealed attachment-anxiety and intolerance of uncertainty had a serial-mediation effect in the association between CAN and OCPT. Serial mediation was not found for metacognition and attachment-anxiety. However, metacognition alone mediated between child emotional abuse and OCPT. These findings expand our currently limited knowledge regarding the etiology of OCPT and suggest that attachment-anxiety, intolerance of uncertainty, and metacognition may be important contributors for understanding the development of OCPT following CAN exposure. The potential clinical utility for both assessment and treatment are discussed.

Despite their explicit focus on family functioning and mounting evidence of the intergenerational mechanisms of childhood experiences (Zhang et al., 2022), very little is known about the parents of the high-risk youth receiving Intensive Home-Based Treatment (IHBT). Knowledge about parents’ childhood experiences of risk and resilience, which are known to impact parenting behaviors, may provide insight into the complex clinical presentations frequently seen in this population and help guide the implementation of maximally effective interventions. The goal of this study was to examine and characterize the childhood experiences of parents whose children are enrolled in a community-based IHBT. Using a sample of 6,722 parents of children receiving IHBT, we collected parents’ reports of their Adverse Childhood Events (ACE) and Resilient Childhood Events (RCE). In addition to examining the rates and profiles of ACEs and RCEs for the total sample, we examined how these rates and profiles differed between birth and non-birth parents. On average, parents reported 3.5 ACE (sd = 2.8) and 7.9 RCE (sd = 2.0). ACE and RCE scores were negatively related (r = − .43, p < .001). Compared to non-birth parents (e.g., kinship caregivers, foster parents), birth parents had higher ACE scores (3.7 vs. 2.8) and lower RCE scores (7.8 vs. 8.4). This study found high rates of reported childhood adversity among birth and non-birth parents of youth receiving IHBT. Both groups also reported substantial childhood resiliency-building experiences, highlighting the complexity of these variables. Non-birth parents in our sample presented with lower ACEs and higher resiliency-building experiences than birth parents, but the clinical implications of this trend will require further investigation. Taken together, the present findings lend additional empirical support to the notion that parents in IHBTs – whether biologically related or not to their children – present with childhood experiences that may differ from other parents and may meaningfully impact treatment outcomes. Thoughtful, multidisciplinary, and mixed methods unpacking is needed to form the basis of future policy and practice recommendations.

There is a concern that adolescent mental well-being and resilience has been adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Consequently, the aim of the current investigation was to track adolescents’ resilience from the initial months of the pandemic (T1) to approximately two years later (T2) using both qualitative and quantitative methods. Through interviews, thirty-one adolescents narrated their COVID-19 experiences and reflected on their mental well-being across this timespan. Using these accounts, we identified four groups of adolescents exhibiting one of the following trajectories of resilience: (1) Enduring resilience, (2) Reaching resilience, (3) Declining resilience and (4) Enduring non-resilience. Our findings revealed that most adolescents were able to maintain or develop good resilience on prolonged exposure to COVID-19 adversity (trajectories 1 and 2). This finding is contrary to the prevailing notion that the majority of adolescents’ mental well-being and hence resilience was adversely impacted by COVID-19 in the short and long term. Further qualitative analysis identified key factors that contributed to maintaining and developing greater levels of resilience during the pandemic: quality of friendships, quality of family relationships and regaining a sense of control. Lastly, we found a lack of congruence between quantitative and qualitative measures of mental well-being and resilience, suggesting that they might tap into different constructs/experiences. Significantly, our findings highlight that the majority of teens showed adaptive resilience during the pandemic and highlight the need for further longitudinal qualitative and quantitative research to assess both adaptive and maladaptive impacts of adversity on the adolescents’ mental well-being and resilience.

Prospective professional helpers particularly in psychology are at great risk when they have had adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Their self-regulation as survivors may endanger their profession in the future. A mixed-methods sequential explanatory study aimed to gain an in-depth understanding of the self-regulation of emerging adult students majoring in psychology who survived ACEs. The first study with a cross-sectional survey method identified negative correlation between ACEs and self-regulation. The domain of childhood maltreatment was more strongly negatively associated with impulse control than goal setting. The opposite applied to the domain of family/household dysfunction. Meanwhile, the second study with a narrative method among participants with at least four types of ACEs generated ten narrative themes (i.e. intense self-criticism, excessive self-dedication, awareness, meaning reconstruction, compensation or avoidance, competitiveness, independence, family orientation, social relation patterns, and social support role). Integration of the two results generated four forms of survivors’ typical self-regulation. Two forms were in line with previous concepts (i.e. impulse control and goal setting), the rest were two survivor-specific findings (i.e. cognitive functioning and the value of the other’s presence). There were three groups of participants produced from correspondence analysis. The results indicate that despite their survival, their setting goals and striving for the future, psychology students with more ACEs are still hindered by the terrible memories and their impacts. Self-insufficiency and interpersonal issues particularly may cloud their future profession as helpers. The psychology students themselves or other parties can help improve self-regulation by understanding the possible connections between their ACEs and their current difficulties, separating lingering emotions caused by past history, and improving abilities gradually, intrapersonally and interpersonally.

Purpose: Adults who have been maltreated as children are at risk for a variety of adverse sequalae that can have a negative impact on parents’ emotion-related socialization behaviours (ERSBs) and contribute to the intergenerational transmission of emotion regulation difficulties. However, various supports may reduce unsupportive behaviours. Informed by Belsky’s (1984) determinants of parenting model, the goal of the present study was to examine multi-level stressors and supports that may contribute to, or discourage, parents’ use of unsupportive ERSBs. Methods: Mothers and young adults (aged 18–25) from across Canada participated in an online study (N = 185 dyads). Mothers responded to questionnaires assessing multi-level stressors and supports, while young adults reported on their mothers’ ERSBs during adolescence. Results: A hierarchical regression analysis revealed that mothers who reported more impulse control difficulties, who experienced greater revictimization, and who had more severe dissociative symptoms were rated as higher in their use of unsupportive contingencies. However, when contextual supports were added into the model, only revictimization remained associated with unsupportive contingencies. Furthermore, mothers’ positive perceptions of the parent-child relationship were negatively associated with unsupportive contingencies. Conclusions: Preventing revictimization amongst survivors of child maltreatment may be an effective way to prevent the intergenerational continuity of unsupportive emotion socialization and emotion regulation difficulties. Interventions that improve parent-child attachment relationships may also be beneficial to survivors who want to break the cycle of maladaptive parenting.