Exposure to child maltreatment and maternal substance use disorder represent two highly consequential and co-occurring experiences of family-level adversity for the development of concerning substance use behaviors among offspring. The present study uses latent class analysis to identify how characteristics of childhood maltreatment and maternal substance use disorder naturally cluster. Further, this study investigates how distinct patterns of maltreatment and maternal substance use differentially predict emerging adult substance use in offspring.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Person-centered approaches are essential for characterizing heterogeneity in child development as it relates to child maltreatment (CM) and dating violence. The present study had two aims: 1) identify person-centered patterns of childhood socioemotional functioning, 2) examine whether patterns of child socioemotional functioning mediate the association between CM and dating violence.
Participants And Setting: Wave 1 comprised N = 680 children ages 10-12 years with and without experiences of CPS-substantiated CM facing socio-economic challenge.
Dante Cicchetti's remarkable contributions to the field of developmental psychopathology include the advancement of key principles such as the interplay of typical and atypical development, multifinality and equifinality, the dynamic processes of resilience, and the integration of multiple levels of analysis into developmental theories. In this paper we assert that person-centered data analytic methods are particularly well-suited to advancing these tenets of developmental psychopathology. We illustrate their utility with a brief novel empirical study focused on underlying patterns of childhood neuroendocrine regulation and prospective links with emerging adult functioning.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSocial victimization (SV) and altered neural connectivity have been associated with each other and psychotic-like experiences (PLE). However, research has not directly examined the associations between these variables, which may speak to mechanisms of psychosis-risk. Here, we utilized two-year follow-up data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study to test whether SV increases PLE through two neural networks mediating socio-affective processes: the default mode (DMN) and salience networks (SAN).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry
August 2024
Objective: Children who experience maltreatment are prone to exhibit interpersonal deficits and lack secure attachment, which can lead to internalizing and externalizing symptomatology. This study investigated timing and chronicity of maltreatment and its impacts on psychopathology outcomes in young adulthood. Two interpersonal mediators were examined: problems with peers and childhood attachment security.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChildhood adversity represents a robust risk factor for the development of harmful substance use. Although a range of empirical studies have examined the consequences of multiple forms of adversity (i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMerrill Palmer Q (Wayne State Univ Press)
January 2023
Despite findings that developmental timing of maltreatment is a critical factor in predicting subsequent outcomes, children's developmental stage is understudied in maltreatment research. Moreover, childhood maltreatment is associated with the development of maladaptive peer relationships and psychopathology, with social cognition identified as a process underlying this risk. The current study utilizes structural equation modeling to examine the impact of developmental timing of maltreatment (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFResearch links life stressors, including acute, chronic, and early life stress, to the development of ruminative brooding. However, singular forms of life stress rarely occur in isolation, as adolescents typically encounter stressors that vary on important dimensions (e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study uses a 2-wave, longitudinal design to evaluate mother-child attachment security (child-reported) and emotion regulation capacities (wave 1, age 10-12) as mediators linking childhood maltreatment chronicity and emotion regulation (ER) patterns in emerging adulthood (wave 2; = 399; 48.1% male; 77.2% Black/African-American, 11.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Individuals with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) experience heightened rates of childhood trauma and adversity. Research has examined the negative impact adverse childhood experiences have on developmental outcomes. This study aims to take the field a step further by examining the details of traumatic events, including duration, perpetrator, whether the event significantly impacted the child, and trauma subtype.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe present study illustrates the utility of latent class analysis, a person-centered data analytic approach, as an innovative method for identifying naturally occurring patterns of polygenic risk, specifically within the dopaminergic system. Moreover, this study tests whether latent classes of polygenic variation moderate the effect of child maltreatment exposure on internalizing symptoms among African ancestry youth. African ancestry youth were selected for this study because youth of color are overrepresented in the child welfare system and because African ancestry individuals are significantly underrepresented in genomics research.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRes Child Adolesc Psychopathol
September 2023
Recent research highlights the use of artificial boundaries between distinct types of adverse experiences, including forms of maltreatment. Commonly-utilized methods that isolate the impact of one maltreatment subtype over others and fail to consider the often co-occurring nature of maltreatment may not adequately capture the complex heterogeneous nature of maltreatment and may obscure understanding of developmental pathways. Moreover, childhood maltreatment is associated with the development of maladaptive peer relationships and psychopathology, with negative conceptions of relationships identified as a risk pathway.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) have high rates of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). ACEs are associated with a wide range of health outcomes including difficulty with behavior regulation, an important intervention target. However, the effect of ACEs on different areas of behavior has not been well characterized in children with disabilities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChild maltreatment (CM) is a robust risk factor for adolescent depressive and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Quality attachment relationships have been posited as a protective factor but findings are equivocal and studies have not adequately considered the complex network of interpersonal relationships that adolescents rely on. The current study applied a person-centered approach to (a) identify subgroups of adolescent females characterized by distinct patterns of attachment quality with peers, fathers, and mothers and (b) determine if the effect of maltreatment on depressive and PTSD symptoms varied as a function of distinct patterns of attachment quality.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Child maltreatment is a potent risk factor for depression across the life course, with maltreatment and depression demonstrated to disproportionately impact youth of color. Despite evidence for mechanisms (e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCo-occurring maternal depression and antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) are associated with the development of psychopathology in children, yet little is known about risk mechanisms. In a sample of 122 racially diverse and economically disadvantaged families, we prospectively investigated (a) to what extent child socioemotional problems were related to maternal depression-only, ASPD-only, or the co-occurrence of both and (b) specificity in parenting-related mechanisms linking single-type or comorbid maternal psychopathology to child outcomes at age 3. Compared to mothers without either ASPD or depression, exposure to maternal depression-only and comorbid depression/ASPD predicted child problems as a function of greater parenting stress and lower maternal sensitivity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPerson-centered methods represent an important advance in the simultaneous examination of multiple indicators of neuroendocrine functioning and may facilitate a more nuanced understanding of the impact of child maltreatment on hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis dysregulation. The aims of the present study were threefold: (a) identify naturally occurring patterns of diurnal cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) regulation among a sample of = 1,258 children with and without histories of maltreatment, (b) investigate which neuroendocrine profiles characterize children with exposure to maltreatment, and (c) examine which profiles are related to adaptive outcomes and symptomatology among children. Cortisol and DHEA were sampled three times per day (9 a.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChildhood maltreatment is a potent interpersonal trauma associated with dysregulation of emotional processes relevant to the development of psychopathology. The current study identified prospective links between patterns of maltreatment exposures and dimensions of emotion regulation in emerging adulthood. Participants included 427 individuals (48% Male; 75.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRes Child Adolesc Psychopathol
January 2023
Childhood maltreatment is a toxic stressor that occurs in the family context and is related to adverse outcomes including elevations in internalizing symptomology and externalizing symptomology. In the present study, we tested the role of threat and deprivation dimensions of child maltreatment in the etiology of comorbid psychopathology in emerging adulthood. Additionally, we investigated emotion regulation and emotion lability/negativity as mechanisms underlying the relationship between child maltreatment dimensions and emerging adult psychopathology.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDistinguishing profiles of trauma exposure among low-income adolescent females with depressive symptoms is important for understanding comorbidity, family relationships, and treatment. Specifically, child maltreatment is essential to examine in comparison to other traumas. Participants included 170 adolescent females (65.
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