Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) play a role in the development of chronic mental and physical diseases in adulthood. These experiences include adversities such as: emotional/verbal abuse, sexual abuse, physical abuse, and household dysfunction. In this study, we hypothesize that forensic mental health offenders will have higher ACE scores than community participants. Secondly, we hypothesize that these participants will show higher rates of and earlier incidences of offending, arrest, incarceration, and hospitalization as a result of their ACE scores. Further, we hypothesize that males and females will be affected by ACEs differently. Using archival data from a secure forensic psychiatric facility in the Midwestern US, data were collected from 211 participants, of which 80% were males and 18% females. The ages of the participants ranged from 23 to 72 with a median age of 43. Using SPSS software, we were able to determine frequency of the ten categories of abuse, maltreatment, and familial dysfunction as included in the original ACE research. Correlations were run to determine the relationship between ACEs and criminal behavior. Statistical comparisons were also run to examine the differences between males and females. ACE score significantly correlated with age at first psychiatric admission. Males and females were significantly different with regard to ACE score. However, other variables were not significant and suggest that future research need to more deeply examine these differences, and additional variables that may determine criminal outcomes in high-risk samples.

Introduction: The effects of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been long studied in various populations, but there has been limited research on how differential ACEs can lead to more uncommon outcomes in unique and high-risk populations, such as youth who have engaged in sexually abusive behaviors. These youth experience ACEs at higher rates and with greater comorbidity than those who have engaged in nonsexual crimes or without justice-system involvement. ACEs are associated with increased suicidal ideation and attempts, though little research has examined how different types of ACEs (i.e., direct maltreatment vs. indirect maltreatment/household dysfunction) may lead to differential outcomes. In the current study, I analyze relationships between experiences of direct abuse (i.e., physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse) and indirect abuse/household dysfunction (i.e., neglect, parental absence, caregiver substance misuse, caregiver mental illness, witnessing interpersonal violence) on suicidality outcomes in high-risk youth. I hypothesize that indirect maltreatment/household dysfunction will influence the relationships between adverse experiences and suicidality outcomes beyond the influence of direct maltreatment. Methods: Data were collected from archival records of male youth (n = 290) who had previously engaged in sexually abusive behaviors and received treatment from a private, nonprofit residential and outpatient treatment facility in Tennessee. Hierarchical linear and logistic regressions will be used to determine relationships between adverse experiences and various suicidality outcomes (e.g., presence of suicidal ideation or attempts, age at first suicidal ideation), first with direct maltreatment experiences and then indirect maltreatment/household dysfunction experiences. Results & discussion: Results will be discussed, along with implications for enhancing prevention and clinical intervention strategies for managing suicidality among high-risk youth.

Childhood adversity is often associated with devastating physical, cognitive, and psychosocial outcomes, and is a major public health problem in terms of its prevalence and economic cost. Childhood adversity is associated with increased risk for psychopathology, as well as with dysregulation of the neurobiological stress response. An additional factor known to alter neuroendocrine functioning and increase psychopathology risk is polymorphisms within the FKBP5 gene. The goal of the current study was to examine the gene-environment interaction of childhood adversity and variation in the FKBP5 gene on the cortisol response to a psychosocial stress task (i.e., the Trier Social Stress Test). The final sample consisted of 90 depressed and non-depressed adolescents and young adults (11 - 21 years). Childhood adversity was assessed using the Childhood Experience and Abuse Scale (CECA; Bifulco et al., 1994), and was defined as the presence versus absence prior to 18 years of age of severe physical, sexual, or emotional abuse or neglect, witness to domestic discord/violence, or peer-perpetrated bullying. Participants were genotyped at the rs1360780 site of the FKBP5 gene and grouped according to whether they had at least one risk T allele (i.e., TT or TC genotype versus the CC genotype). Controlling for depression and anxiety psychopathology, I found a significant interaction of FKBP5 and childhood adversity status such that individuals with the FKBP5 risk allele (i.e., TT or TC genotype) and a history of childhood adversity showed a distinct cortisol response pattern characterized by decreasing cortisol from baseline and less cortisol output compared to individuals without childhood adversity. This relationship was specific to the experience of severe adversity and appeared to be strongest when adversity was defined as witnessing domestic discord/violence. These results are consistent with a diathesis-stress model in which the FKBP5 risk allele leaves individuals vulnerable to neurobiological dysregulation in the face of severe adverse experience in childhood. The implications of this research for understanding stress-related psychopathology and the limitations of this gene-environment interaction design are discussed. / Thesis (Master, Psychology) -- Queen's University, 2013-09-05 11:24:45.764

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The topic of exposure to childhood adversity has comprehensively been explored, and the effects of childhood trauma can undoubtedly impact a person on a lifelong continuum, still, investigation is unceasingly conducted. Much research has yet to be done when considering early adversity's outcomes on various stages throughout life and just how reoccurring consequences from early trauma may impair regulatory abilities and executive functioning beyond childhood. Research objective is to discover how early adversity influences later executive functions in conjunction to heuristics and the effects of hypervigilance in a college student populace. This study aims to examine the several variable differences from internal beliefs to external actions when considering the discrepancies between those with adversity to those without, and what factors may play a key role in harboring resilience through a quantitative experimental study. The importance of creating awareness for those impacted by early adversity is vital for building advocacy within society. The proposed study can potentially provide knowledge towards issues related to the influence of early adversity in Adulthood. Parallel to analyzing how early adversity impacts later life, examining student populations can provide findings that help depict in what ways the related factors influence trajectory both in academia and personal development and what role education may play.

Child maltreatment and household dysfunction have long been linked to delinquency, adult criminality, and sexual offending. However, the association between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), factors related to out-of-home placement, and the onset of maladaptive behaviors has not thoroughly been explored in adolescents who have engaged in sexually abusive behavior. In the present study, we examined archival records of 120 male youths who have received treatment for sexually abusive behavior. As expected, the male adolescents in this sample have experienced higher rates of ACEs than samples of adult males in the community, adult males who committed sexual offenses, and juvenile justice–involved males as reported in the literature. Discrete-time survival analyses yielded increased risks of onset of aggression and sexually abusive behavior during early childhood and mid-to-late childhood, with significant associations between higher ACE scores and a greater number of out-ofhome placements. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Extensive research has shown that childhood adversity impacts development across the lifespan and has been linked to numerous negative health outcomes. Depression symptoms are one such outcome that has been associated with ACE exposure. The literature also indicates emotion regulation may be a mediator between ACEs and depression outcomes. The primary aim of this study (N = 766) is to investigate pathways leading from ACEs to depression and potential protective factors. It was hypothesized that difficulties in emotion regulation would mediate the link between ACEs and later depressive symptoms, social support would moderate the pathway between difficulties in emotion regulation and depression, and social support would have a greater buffering effect in individuals with more severe ACE exposure. Results supported emotion regulation as a mediator between ACEs and depression. Social support was not found to significantly buffer against depression. Future research may benefit from examining transdiagnostic emotion regulation treatments.

Many studies have noted the detrimental impact adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can have on individuals’ developmental trajectories and, as a result, the utilization of trauma-informed practices has been of increasing interest within the field of education. Most research on trauma-informed pedagogy is derived from samples of children in grades K-12, whereas research on trauma-informed teaching practices within higher education is comparatively scarce. The specific aims of the current investigation are two-fold. The first aim is to explore the effect of postsecondary instructors’ disciplinary specialization (i.e., person-thing orientation) on their receptivity to compassionate teaching practices. The second aim is to implement a brief (i.e., one hour, single session), asynchronous intervention to inform instructors about ACEs, subsequent effects on learning, and evidence-based, trauma-informed teaching practices. Results indicated that participants’ thing-orientation scores negatively predicted their post-intervention receptivity scores and that there was a significant increase in knowledge about compassionate teaching practices from pre-assessment to post-assessment. Future studies should seek to replicate these findings and continue to identify factors that may influence one’s receptivity to compassionate teaching practices.

Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is a stressful life experience with lasting/far-reaching health and psychopathological consequences. Our laboratory recently identified a significantly increased frequency of acquired chromosomal anomalies (assessed using the cytokinesis-blocked micronucleus assay) in adult female twins exposed to CSA when compared to their unexposed co-twin. The primary aim of this study was to evaluate potential mechanism(s) underlying the observed increases in levels of micronuclei in an expanded group of 90 female identical twins (61 CSA+ females and 29 CSA- females [including a total of 27 MZ co-twin pairs]) using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) methodologies, with PNA probes specific for the centromeric and telomeric regions of all chromosomes coupled with the standard CBMN assay, we were able to characterize the chromosomal contents of MN and, thus, gain insight into the mechanisms underlying MN formation. By scoring 100 MN per study participant for the number of centromeric signal(s) and/or telomeric signal(s) present, we categorized the MN as harboring either: (1) terminal fragments (only a telomeric signal); (2) acentric interstitial fragments (no telomeric or centromeric signal); (3) centric interstitial fragments (only a centromeric signal); or (4) an intact chromosome(s) or chromatid(s). We identified elevated frequencies of intact chromosome-derived MN in CSA+ women as compared to CSA- women (P=0.014), implicating chromosome loss as a mechanism potentially underlying the increased frequencies of MN identified in adult females with a history of CSA. MN containing fragmented chromosomes were also observed in all of the study participants evaluated; however MN containing terminal fragments and MN containing acentric interstitial fragments were seen less frequently in CSA+ women compared to CSA- women. This study represents the first time that the chromosomal contents of MN have been evaluated in individuals in the context of a psychosocial factor. As chromosomal loss and breakage contributes to the development of age-related health problems, these observations provide important insight into the biological mechanisms that may underlie the latent morbidity and psychopathology associated with childhood adversity. Future studies aimed at understanding the biological impact of early-life trauma could determine if the observed increase in acquired chromosomal abnormalities results in detectable somatic clonal mosaicism. This knowledge could ultimately be used to develop screening tools to identify individuals “at risk” for negative health outcomes in adulthood.