Child abuse & neglect
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Child abuse & neglect · Jul 2019
The relationship between childhood emotional abuse and chronic pain among people who inject drugs in Vancouver, Canada.
People who inject drugs (PWID) often contend with chronic pain as a result of illness and trauma, and such pain is known to have significant impacts on mental health, quality of life, and substance use behaviours. Although PWID are also known to have high rates of childhood trauma, little is known about how childhood emotional abuse may be associated with chronic pain in this population. ⋯ Our findings suggest that childhood emotional abuse may have lasting relationships with chronic pain among PWID, potentially through established physiological and psychological mechanisms. Current chronic pain treatment may benefit from the evaluation of life course vulnerabilities that may be amenable to earlier interventions. Further, increased availability of effective trauma-informed chronic pain treatment is needed among this vulnerable population.
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Child abuse & neglect · Jul 2019
Maternal adverse childhood experiences, attachment style, and mental health: Pathways of transmission to child behavior problems.
Investigations have found mothers' adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) confer an intergenerational risk to their children's outcomes. However, mechanisms underlying this transmission have only been partially explained by maternal mental health. Adult attachment insecurity has been shown to mediate the association of ACEs and mental health outcomes, yet an extension of this research to children's behavioral problems has not been examined. ⋯ Maternal ACEs influenced children's risk for poor behavioral outcomes via direct and indirect intermediary pathways. Addressing maternal insecure attachment style and depression symptoms as intervention targets for mothers with histories of ACEs may help to mitigate the intergenerational transmission of risk.
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Child abuse & neglect · Mar 2019
Patterns of childhood maltreatment and intimate partner violence, emotion dysregulation, and mental health symptoms among lesbian, gay, and bisexual emerging adults: A three-step latent class approach.
Childhood abuse and neglect (CAN) and intimate partner violence victimization (IPV) is prevalent among lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals (LGB). Identification of distinct patterns of childhood and adult victimization, including technology-mediated and face-to-face IPV, and their cumulative relations to mental/behavioral health challenges, among LGB people is needed to facilitate identification of at-risk individuals. ⋯ Findings suggest a detrimental effect of cumulative interpersonal victimization on emotion dysregulation and the mental/behavioral health of LGB emerging adults, with bisexuals and LGB-people of color at heightened risk of cumulative victimization and of related mental/behavioral health challenges.
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Child abuse & neglect · Feb 2019
Multicenter StudyEstimating the probability of abusive head trauma after abuse evaluation.
Evidence-based, patient-specific estimates of abusive head trauma probability can inform physicians' decisions to evaluate, confirm, exclude, and/or report suspected child abuse. ⋯ Seven variables facilitate patient-specific estimation of abusive head trauma probability after abuse evaluation in intensive care settings.
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Child abuse & neglect · Nov 2018
Adverse childhood experiences and adjustment: A longitudinal study of street-involved youth in Brazil.
Most research on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) has been conducted in high-income countries in the global North. The current longitudinal study examined the prevalence, overlap, and impact of ACEs in a sample of Brazilian children and adolescents who use city streets as spaces for socialization and survival (i.e., street-involved youth). Participants (N = 113; M age = 14.18 years) were recruited in three cities following standardized procedures. ⋯ Total number of ACEs was not significantly correlated with any outcome, but several associations emerged for specific ACEs. For example, death of a close friend or family member was prospectively associated with negative affect; sexual abuse was associated with illicit drug use and physical health symptoms (ps < .05). Findings highlight the prevalence of ACEs in this vulnerable population and underscore the value of extending research on ACEs into novel populations and contexts.