The number of children exposed to a traumatic event seems to be continuously growing. Currently there is no research that has examined specifically how a child's traumatic experience is understood in the context of the child-caregiver relationship. The purpose of this study was to understand the dynamics of the relationship between the child and caregiver after a child's traumatic event, from the caregiver's perspective. The research design for this study was a multiple case study qualitative design involving 9 participants, recruited through criteria sampling. These participants provided data obtained through semi-structured interviews. Based on the methodology and the research question, the theoretical foundation for this study was Salvador Minuchin's structural family therapy (SFT). Minuchin's theory provided the framework and pre-existing categories for the qualitative deductive analysis of participants' interviews. The study found that the most common triad among children with a trauma history is an odd man out triad. The odd man out triad is representative of at least one family member having a cut off relationship with another family member. Results also indicate the most common relational dynamic, or theme, between the child and/or caregiver(s) was a cut off relational dynamic. These dyads and triads aid in identifying how the family subsystems are operating and subsequently inform researchers and clinicians how families organize around a traumatic event. This study also can aid in getting professionals to use a systemic lens when working with children who have experienced trauma. In conclusion, the research in this study found that not only are children impacted by their traumatic events, but the caregivers are as well.

This mixed-methods study explores childhood trauma with a primary focus on the beliefs and attitudes of elementary school administrators in their ability to offer trauma-informed leadership and assist their teachers in trauma-informed care (TIC) and education. Participants at various stages of their careers were recruited from elementary schools across 10 U.S. states (N = 240). Employing an explanatory sequential mixed method design, Phase I assessed school administrators’ attitudes using the attitudes related to trauma-informed care scale (ARTIC-45) (see Appendix A). Phase II employed semi-structured interviews to collect qualitative data to explain further and clarify the quantitative results. Findings suggest that elementary school administrators have positive attitudes related to trauma-informed care. Findings also suggest years of administrative experience shows a negative statistically significant relationship while the number of TIC training hours shows a positive statistically significant relationship to attitudes related to trauma-informed care. Analysis also suggests no statistically significant relationship between years of teaching experience and attitudes related to trauma-informed care. A closer examination of the ARTIC – 45 subscales indicate elementary school administrators have negative personal support attitudes toward TIC implementation and negative feelings about the systemwide support they receive from colleagues, supervisors, and administration to implement TIC.

No description available.

American children growing up in poor urban communities experience a disproportionate amount of direct and indirect violence in addition to the challenges of growing up with limited resources. Due to high amounts of physical and structural violence in these communities, urban youth are at increased risk for complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD) and its associated sequelae, such as asthma, obesity, diabetes, and behavioral problems. Evidence demonstrates that sexual abuse and repeated interpersonal trauma leads to more intense symptomatology than traditional post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and traumatic events in early childhood predisposes one to a C-PTSD reaction. This literature review of complex trauma serves to further validate the need for modern psychiatry to recognize C-PTSD as a diagnosis and to identify treatment interventions for this vulnerable population. / Urban Bioethics

There is an abundance of literature that examines the comorbidity of domestic violence and trauma as well as domestic violence and alcohol and/or substance abuse in both community and incarcerated samples of women. There is a paucity of research dedicated to discovering if incarcerated women are significantly more likely to have this triad of domestic violence, trauma, and alcohol and/or substance abuse than their community cohorts. The present study examined this under-researched area by analyzing data from 147 women who participated in an extensive, ongoing research project. Women in this sample were from the United States, Russia, Colombia, Spain, Trinidad, and Greece. Results found that the incarcerated women were significantly more likely to suffer more severe domestic violence and were also more likely to abuse substances. No significant differences were found with respect to witnessing domestic violence or childhood sexual abuse, but both groups reported high rates. There were also no significant differences found between the groups on current symptoms of trauma, but both groups obtained scores that hovered just below the clinical cutoff. Although these variables were not statistically significant, they are diagnostic in that they describe experiences related to being a victim of domestic violence and are therefore, areas of potential intervention.

Introduction The aims of this thesis were twofold. The first was to systematically review the literature, on the influence of childhood trauma on psychopathology, across a range of forensic settings. The second was to complete an empirical study that examined the relationship between childhood trauma and insecure attachment patterns and psychopathology, risk, and engagement in therapy, in a forensic population. Method For the first aim database searches and hand searches of journals assessed against predefined criteria, identified 13 papers that were eligible for review. For the research study, 64 participants from three forensic secure hospitals completed three self-report questionnaires as part of a retrospective cross-sectional design. Data was also obtained from hospital records and clinical staff. Results The systematic review identified ten studies that were rated to be of good quality, two that were rated to be of fair quality and one that was rated as weak. Results identified a relationship between childhood trauma and psychopathology, but it is difficult to generalise findings due to the heterogeneity of this population. The research study found both childhood trauma and insecure attachment significantly predicted psychopathology and risk. No associations with engagement in therapy were found, but methodological reasons for this outcome were considered. Conclusion The systematic review highlighted that research in the area of childhood trauma and psychopathology in forensic settings is at an early stage, as most studies are small and cross-sectional. It discussed the need to develop further research to improve psychological treatment and reduce recidivism. Recommendations were made in the research study to routinely assess for childhood trauma and consider attachment patterns. Limitations in the design of the study were also acknowledged.

INTRODUCTION: Child maltreatment is a significant public health problem that affects all countries and cultures alike. Child maltreatment, which includes neglect, physical abuse, emotional abuse and sexual abuse, can result in negative consequences that are lifelong and irreversible. Previous studies have shown the prevalence of all forms of child abuse in India, which is also home to one fifth of the world’s children. However, adequate resources and efforts are not being made to understand the true scope of this problem. AIM: The present study utilized an existing measure, the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), to understand how parents from the South Indian culture defined acceptable child rearing practices and physical and emotional child abuse. The items from the physical and emotional abuse subscales on the CTQ were also tested for validity and reliability. It was hypothesized that fathers would report higher scores on the physical abuse subscale and mothers would report higher scores on the emotional abuse subscale. It was also hypothesized that parents would find spanking to be an acceptable form of discipline and note that both child physical and emotional abuse are not prevalent in the South Indian community residing in the United States. METHODS: This study recruited 41 participants (21 mothers and 20 fathers) to complete the CTQ. Of the total number of participants, ten were randomly assigned to participate in an in-depth interview, which focused on how parents in the South Indian community in Georgia interpreted the items on the CTQ and how parents defined child physical and emotional abuse. Reliability and validity testing was conducted using data analysis software SPSS 23.0. Qualitative analysis of the interviews involved Consensual Qualitative Research, identifying common themes among all ten interviews. RESULTS: Quantitative analysis revealed low to moderate internal consistency for the emotional abuse scale (α = 0.65) and moderate to high internal consistency for the physical abuse scale (α = 0.88). Independent t-test results showed that fathers reported higher scores on both the physical and emotional abuse subscale; however, these results were not significant. Using the Consensual Qualitative Research method, six domains were determined from the interviews. These included: (a) parent perspectives on child rearing practices, (b) spanking as a discipline practice, (c) country differences between India and the United States regarding discipline, (d) prevalence of abuse among the South Indian community in the United States, (e) reporting child abuse, and (f) parents’ awareness of resources to develop parenting skills. A majority of participants reported spanking as an acceptable form of discipline and believed that neither child physical nor emotional abuse was prevalent in the South Indian community in the United States. CONCLUSION: This study serves as formative research and encourages further investigation of different forms of child abuse in Indian populations, specifically child physical and emotional abuse. Understanding how a culture views children and child rearing practices is important in determining how abuse is defined within said culture. Societies that are more lenient and accepting of violence in general are at a greater risk for perpetrating the maltreatment of children. Establishing a concise definition of child abuse will aid in the development of valid measures that will determine the actual scope of the problem and create solutions, such as laws and policies that will shift a society’s view on appropriate interactions with children.

<p>In directed forgetting research, participants are instructed to forget information recently learned, and asked instead to remember new information given later. When asked to recall both the to-be-remembered and the to-be-forgotten information, participants successfully exhibit directed forgetting by recalling more to-be-remembered material, than to-be-forgotten material. In the present study, two directed forgetting list method experiments were conducted on undergraduate students of psychology (n = 25; n = 78). The aim of the study was to see if retrieval inhibition between participants with or without traumatic childhood experiences differed, when presented with negative or positive words. All participants were screened for childhood trauma with the CTQ-SF. The participants in the second experiment were additionally screened for dissociation with the DES-II. While Experiment 1, possibly due to small sample size failed to attain a directed forgetting effect, Experiment 2 succeeded. The issue of childhood trauma did not influence the directed forgetting effect.</p>

Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht Zusammenhänge zwischen verschiedenen Vulnerabilitätsfaktoren der Depression und deren Einflüsse auf den Krankheitsverlauf bei stationär behandelten, depressiven Patienten.

Successful negotiation of emerging adult transitions predicts positive developmental outcomes across the lifespan. Emerging adults who have experienced childhood trauma are at increased risk for maladaptive development. The purpose of this dissertation study was to (a) provide descriptive demographic and health information about emerging adult survivors of childhood trauma seeking support from a university counseling center and (b) investigate the impact that different types of childhood trauma had on psychological symptoms and aspects of distress experienced by that population during college. It was hypothesized that there would be no significant differences in student distress based on single-type abuse, but that there would be significant differences based on the experience of polyvictimization, with multi-type abuse related to increased distress. Extant client data collected by the University of Oregon Counseling and Testing Center (UO-UCTC) were used to meet study objectives. Participants were college students, age 18-25 years, who voluntarily sought mental health services from UO-UCTC and who endorsed childhood trauma experiences on their intake paperwork. Results from descriptive, finite mixture modeling, logistic regression, chi-square, and multiple regression analyses revealed that (a) there were unique relationships between trauma type and a variety of demographic variables; (b) help-seeking emerging adults reported experiencing childhood emotional single-type abuse most frequently, with childhood emotional-physical abuse being the most commonly reported form of multi-type abuse; (c) the sample endorsed higher than typical psychological symptoms and aspects of distress both in terms of quantity and severity, with particularly elevated depression, family distress, and generalized anxiety scores; (d) a five-component solution emerged, classifying participants into five clusters of symptom reporting; however, no relationship was found between symptom cluster and childhood trauma type; (e) the probability of experiencing generalized anxiety and/or family distress was related to the type of childhood trauma experienced; and (f) the severity of generalized anxiety and/or family distress that participants reported was significantly related to the type of childhood trauma they experienced. Findings highlight the importance of contextualizing current abuse typologies and assessing multi-type abuse. Recommendations for expanding definitions of trauma and providing care to emerging adult survivors of childhood trauma on college campuses are discussed.