Aim: This study aimed to address an important gap in the current state of the literature on adverse childhood experiences and work-related outcomes in adulthood. The research investigates whether childhood adversity is associated with job satisfaction and tenure in adulthood and explores potential mediating factors underlying the association. Method: Utilizing a cross-sectional design, this research draws upon data from the UK Biobank, a large population-based cohort study. The study sample comprised 12,391 participants with an average age of 54.72 years (SD = 5.95), and 52.38% of participants were females, and 90.37% were white. Furthermore, 25.91% had experienced at least one adversity while 1.59% had experienced three or more. Results: Using logistic and gamma regression models adjusted for age, sex, education, and household income, the results confirmed the hypotheses that early adversity is negatively associated with both job satisfaction and tenure in a dose-response fashion. Moreover, neuroticism, social support, avoidant coping, perception of life meaningfulness, and health satisfaction were identified as potential underlying mechanisms. Only neuroticism and social support did not mediate the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and tenure. Conclusion: The findings of this study emphasize the long-term relationships between childhood adversity and work-related outcomes in adulthood and highlights the importance of trauma- informed workplaces to support individuals that has a history of childhood adversity. / Syfte: Denna studie syftade till att undersöka en viktig lucka i den nuvarande forskningen gällande traumatiska barndomsupplevelser och utfall i arbetslivet. De forskningsfrågor som formar denna studie fokuserar på hur barndomstrauman påverkar arbetstillfredsställelse samt anställningstid och huruvida det finns några medierande mekanismer. Metod: Studien använde sig av en tvärsnittsdesign med data från UK Biobank som är en populationsbaserad kohortstudie. Medelåldern för urvalet (12,391 deltagare) i studien var 54,72 år (SD = 5,95), 52,38% av deltagarna var kvinnor, och 90,37% var vita. Dessutom hade 25,91% upplevt minst en traumatisk upplevelse medan endast 1,59% hade upplevt tre eller fler. Resultat: Det användes bland annat en logistisk och gamma regressionsmodell justerade för ålder, kön, utbildning och hushållsinkomst för att bekräfta hypoteserna om att tidiga barndomstrauman är negativt förknippade med arbetstillfredsställelse och anställningstid likt ett dos-responsförhållande. Dessutom visade sig neuroticism, socialt stöd, undvikande coping, uppfattning om livets meningsfullhet och hälsotillfredsställelse ha ett signifikant samband som underliggande mekanismer. Neuroticism och socialt stöd medierade däremot inte förhållandet mellan traumatiska barndomsupplevelser och anställningstid. Med anledning av detta blev hypoteserna om dessa medierande mekanismerna endast delvis bekräftade. Slutsats: Studiens resultat belyser den negativa inverkan barndomstrauman har på arbetsrelaterade utfall samt betonar vikten av att utforma arbetsplatser med ett traumamedvetet bemötande för att stödja individer som har en historia av traumatiska upplevelser.

Healthcare workers (HCWs) and public safety personnel (PSP) are at an elevated risk for adverse mental health outcomes, including PTSD, anxiety, depression, and increased suicidality. Workplace challenges and burdens were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which further highlighted the physical and mental health vulnerabilities of HCWs and PSP. As a result, there has been a growing interest from mental health professionals and researchers in understanding the unique stresses and mental health risks these individuals face. Moral injury (MI), a phenomenon linked to the unique experiences of HCWs and PSP, has been associated with adverse mental health outcomes. Cognitive impairments, such as memory disturbances, are also frequently observed in these populations. This thesis explored the relation between MI and memory disturbances and how this relation was impacted by emotion regulation (ER) and self-compassion (SC). In addition, we investigated how SC and ER influenced the relation between MI and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). In the first study of this thesis, we explored these relations through a series of correlational, moderated mediation analyses of self-report measures collected among HCWs and PSP during the COVID-19 pandemic. These analyses revealed significant relations between MI and memory disturbances, where higher levels of moral injury were associated with elevated levels of memory disturbances, particularly in relation to subscales of guilt and shame. Interestingly, these effects were moderated by ER and mediated by SC at high levels of ER difficulties. In the second study of the thesis, we conducted various correlational analyses as well as explored the relation between MI and ACEs alongside the impacts of SC and ER through moderated mediation analysis. The analyses in this study revealed significant relations between MI and ACEs regarding the mediating effect of SC and the moderating effect of ER at medium and low levels of ER difficulties. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

Konvergierende neurobiologische Studien zeigen, dass Negative Kindheitserfahrungen (Adverse Childhood Experiences, ACEs) mehrere dicht miteinander verknüpfte Hirnsysteme beeinflussen und die Entwicklung von Exekutivfunktionen stören, insbesondere die Fähigkeit, unangemessene Affekte und Handlungen zu unterdrücken. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurde zunächst untersucht, wie Exekutivfunktionen in nicht-emotionalen (kühlen) und emotionalen (heißen) Situationen (d. h. Emotionsregulation) mit einer hohen Exposition gegenüber ACEs zusammenhängen und ob solche Beziehungen durch akuten Stress verstärkt werden. Unsere Ergebnisse zeigen, dass gewalttätiges Verhalten bei Opfern von Kindheitstraumata eher mit Defiziten in heißen Exekutivfunktionen als mit Defiziten in kühlen Exekutivfunktionen verbunden sein könnte, insbesondere unter Stressbedingungen. Insgesamt zeigt diese Studie erstens die Nützlichkeit von OpenFace, einem kostengünstigen und dennoch effektiven Instrument zur Untersuchung des mimischen Verhaltens bei der Emotionsregulation. Zweitens eröffnet sie Perspektiven für eine gezieltere Erforschung von und Interventionen bei ACEs. Drittens bezieht sie Jugendliche ein, eine wenig erforschte Altersgruppe, die sich in einer sensiblen Phase der Entwicklung von Exekutivfunktionen befinden. / Converging neurobiological studies show that Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) affect multiple densely interconnected neurobiological systems and disrupt the development of executive functions (EFs), especially the ability to inhibit inappropriate affects and actions, potentially modulating factors in the relationship between ACEs and violent behaviour. This study first sought to assess how EFs under non-emotional (cool) and emotional (hot) situations (i.e. emotion regulation) are related with high-exposure to ACEs, and whether any such relationships would be aggravated by acute stress. Our findings show that violent behavior among victims of childhood trauma might be associated more with deficits in hot EFs than it is with deficits in cool EFs, especially more so under conditions of stress. Altogether, this study first shows the usefulness of OpenFace, a low cost yet effective tool to study facial behaviour in emotion regulation. Second, it opens perspectives towards more targeted research on, and interventions for ACEs, and third, it involves adolescents, a little researched age group, yet a sensitive period of EFs development.

Childhood adversity is associated with numerous negative outcomes across multiple domains, including mental and physical health, interrelationships, and social functioning. Notably, research suggests that childhood adversity has a dose-response relationship with these outcomes; that is, greater numbers of adverse experiences in childhood are associated with worse outcomes. These outcomes overlap with many risk factors of homelessness. This study sought to address two questions: 1) Does a dose-response relationship exist between childhood adversity and chronic homelessness? 2) Does childhood adversity negatively predict the age at which homelessness first occurs? Adults experiencing homeless who are accessing homeless services in the Tri-Cities area of Northeast Tennessee responded to a brief instrument that includes measures of homeless chronicity, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), and age of onset of homelessness. Although relationships between ACEs and homeless chronicity was not observed, a relationship did emerge between number of ACEs and number of episodes and number of ACEs and age at initial onset of homelessness.

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Zero-tolerance discipline policies have been in use in U.S. schools for almost 25 years. Since their enactment in the 1990s, researchers have found that zero tolerance disciplinary policies and practices can cause students to enter the school-to-prison pipeline. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to understand the perceptions of middle-school male students of color regarding the discipline process on a campus that supplemented zero-tolerance discipline with restorative practices (RPs). Additional intents of this study were to discover the challenges students encountered when they returned from a disciplinary alternative education program (DAEP) and determine whether RPs helped or hindered their transition to the home campus. Six middle-school male students of color who were placed at the district's DAEP and returned to their home campus participated in the study. The conceptual framework was based on Braithwaite's concept of stigmatized shame following an exclusion and Nathanson's human reactions to shame. The study yielded seven major themes: (a) student perceptions of exclusion, (b) behaviors related to exclusion from school, (c) human reactions to shame—attacking others, (d) human reactions to shame—avoidance, (e) the need for reintegration and acceptance, (f) traumatic events, and (g) dissonance in the discipline process.