The Development of a Culturally Adapted Pilot Intervention for African American Family Members of Homicide Victims: A Preliminary Report.

African Americans are disproportionately impacted by homicide in the United States. Individuals who have lost a relative to homicide often experience symptoms of complicated grief. The objective of this study was to explore the impact of a culturally tailored psychoeducational pilot intervention whose development was informed by a conceptual model of coping for African American survivors of homicide victims and was designed to (a) educate participants about the manifestation of complicated grief and symptoms and (b) help participants develop ways to cope with their grief.

Posttraumatic stress disorder: the missed diagnosis.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is frequently underdiagnosed in maltreated samples. Protective services information is critical for obtaining complete trauma histories and determining whether to survey PTSD symptoms in maltreated children. In the current study, without protective services information to supplement parent and child report, diagnosing PTSD was missed in a significant proportion of the cases.

MAOA genotype, maltreatment, and aggressive behavior: the changing impact of genotype at varying levels of trauma.

Background: Childhood adversity has been shown to interact with monoamine oxidase-A (MAOA) genotype to confer risk for antisocial behavior. Studies examining this gene-by-environment (G x E) association, however, have produced mixed results.

Methods: Relevant research is reviewed, and results of a study with 114 children (73 maltreated and 41 control subjects) are presented.