Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma最新文献

During the COVID-19 pandemic, families with children who had complex special needs faced many obstacles and had less resources available to them. Little published research has described post-lockdown family functioning in clinical samples. The current study investigated caregiver well-being, family functioning, and child/youth symptomatology in three Canadian samples of families with children/youth who had pre-existing, complex, emotional, behavioural, developmental, and mental health needs pre-pandemic (clinic intake within 1 year prior to March 2020), COVID pandemic (clinic intake 1 year during societal lockdowns), and post-restrictions (clinic intake between summer 2022 and summer 2023). Cross-sectional archival data (n > 300 in each cohort) were compared from assessments completed by families as standard of care at a tertiary children's service agency. As predicted, the pandemic intake sample reported significantly more parental mental health challenges, stress, conflicts, and went on fewer recreational outings than the pre-pandemic sample. While parent stress levels and family outing rates in the post-restriction sample resembled the pre-pandemic sample, post-lockdown parental mental health symptoms, family conflict, and family respite levels indicate that families are still recovering. Child symptom levels were high in all three samples, likely a result of intake criteria at this tertiary mental health agency. Research recommendations are offered. Clinical agencies should be mindful that some families of children with complex needs may still be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic changes and consider using a family oriented, trauma-informed care approach to assess the effect of the pandemic.

Previous research has shown that children and youth with disabilities have a higher risk of being victims of sexual violence than their peers without disabilities. However, robust evidence on sexual victimization processes remains scarce and often plagued by inconsistent findings. This review aimed to synthesize research on sexual violence of children and youth with disabilities, namely the rates of sexual violence, risk factors, and characteristics of victims, environment, and perpetrators. A systematic search was conducted using the EBSCO, Web of Science, PubMed, PsycInfo, and Sage databases. Twelve studies were included for review using PRISMA guidelines. Findings from this systematic review clearly showed that sexual violence is a serious problem for children and youth with disabilities and a widespread public health concern, particularly young girls and those with intellectual disabilities. Social isolation, care needs, dependence on others, environments with restrictive routines, relational inequalities, and belonging to a family with adverse or dysfunctional characteristics were the main risk factors highlighted by the studies reviewed. This review suggested that perpetrators of sexual violence are mostly male, namely professional caregivers, teachers, peers, and family members, with a great heterogeneity regarding the types of abusive behaviors and settings where they occur. To improve prevention and intervention strategies in the field of sexual violence against children and youth with disabilities, more research is needed, particularly on risk and protective factors, as well as on predictors of potential victimization.

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.