Relationship Between Childhood Trauma and Sleep Disturbances: The Role of Perceived Stress as a Mediator

The main objective of the current study was to analyze the mediating role of perceived stress on the relationship between childhood trauma and sleep disturbances among the adult population. The sample of this cross-sectional study was composed of 987 Portuguese adults with sleep disturbances, who completed a self-administered questionnaire about childhood trauma, sleep disturbances, and perceived stress. The results of analyses found that in the model that included the variables childhood trauma and perceived stress, both variables were predictors of sleep disturbances; however, perceived stress was the strongest predictor. Regarding the model with the subtypes of maltreatment, only Emotional Abuse predicted sleep problems. Results of the Path Analysis model showed that perceived stress partly mediates the effect of childhood trauma on adult sleep disturbances. This study has clinical implications, supporting the importance of taking into account childhood trauma and perceived stress during the assessment and intervention of sleep disturbances.     

Childhood Sexual Abuse and the Perpetration of Violence: The Moderating Role of Gender

This study sought to increase specificity in our knowledge of links among child sexual abuse (CSA), aggression, and physical intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration by criminal offenders, with particular interest in gender. Participants were 202 men and 72 women (N = 274), who were recruited from an urban pretrial supervision program. Women reported higher rates of CSA than men. After controlling for relevant covariates, CSA was associated with general aggression and severe IPV. We found a gender by CSA interaction; CSA was associated with aggression and severe IPV for women, but not men. Findings provide preliminary evidence that CSA impacts aggression and IPV perpetration differently for female offenders compared to male offenders and gender-specific treatment might be warranted in pretrial settings.     

Characteristics of Traumatic Experience and Survivor Perceptions of Mental Health Services: The 2004–2005 Erie County Community Trauma Survey

Trauma is associated with severe mental illness and substance abuse problems, yet it typically is not addressed sufficiently in treatment. This article reports on an assessment of mental health service recipients and their experience of traumatic events and perceptions of service providers' sensitivity, helpfulness, and knowledge regarding their trauma and service needs using a community-based participatory research model. Demographic characteristics and status of co-occurring disorders were measured. Participants perceived that individual therapists and peer service providers were sensitive to and knowledgeable about their trauma. Group treatment and peer programs were seen as being most helpful. Psychiatric services were seen as being the least sensitive to trauma issues. Implications for practice and research are discussed.     

Trauma Survivors' Emotional Distress and Barriers to Early Psychological Intervention in an Inner-City Acute Surgical Trauma Service

Fifty-five predominantly low-income ethnic minority patients were interviewed and screened for early signs of psychological distress following traumatic injury. A free, brief intervention and transportation were offered to patients who evidenced psychiatric symptoms. Over half of participants reported psychiatric symptoms, but none accepted the free intervention. This study examined reasons participants remained reluctant to engage in services despite elimination of common barriers. Results highlight the importance of perceptual barriers over structural barriers in engaging patients in psychological interventions following a traumatic event.     

Trustworthiness Processing and Psychobiological Responses to Natural Disaster-Induced Distress in Adolescents

In this study, we examine the role of trust perceptions on psychological well-being and salivary cortisol levels of adolescents who were exposed to pervasive, noninterpersonal trauma, displacement, and relocation caused by Hurricane Katrina. Compared to demographically matched controls, affected adolescents reported higher perceptions of other people's trustworthiness, decreased externalizing behaviors, increased internalizing behaviors, greater desire for consolation from others, and lower cortisol activity. Follow-up analyses suggested that the relation between hurricane exposure and lower self-esteem might be mediated partly by increased trustworthiness perceptions. These results suggest that adolescents might respond to different types of stressors with varying patterns of distress and the manner in which the stressors alter trust processing might predict the development of internalizing or externalizing behaviors.     

Vicarious Resilience: An Exploration of Teachers and Children’s Resilience in Highly Challenging Social Contexts

This study explores the formulation of vicarious resilience as a useful concept in the middle school age school educational arena. It addresses the question of how teachers who work with learners who experienced dislocation and adversity are affected by the children’s stories of resilience. It focuses on the teachers’ interpretations of their learners’ stories, and how they make sense of the impact these stories have had on their lives. Twenty-one teachers who work in accelerated learning programs in Cali, Colombia, were interviewed about their perceptions of their learners’ overcoming of adversity. Data were analyzed through the Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR) methodology to describe the themes that speak about the effects of witnessing how learners coped constructively with adversity. These themes are discussed to advance the concept of vicarious resilience and how it can contribute to sustaining and empowering teachers dealing with challenging children and trauma.     

Traumatic Incident Reduction

Abstract

Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR) is a person-centered, yet intensely focused approach to trauma resolution, based on the principle that the very act of trying to repress painful memories is what holds them in place and gives them power over the individual. TIR consists of a safe and structured method for reviewing the contents of a past trauma repeatedly at a pace and with a degree of exposure determined by the client. By applying the TIR technique to a traumatic memory in a one-on-one setting with a trained facilitator, the client can discover what he or she needs to know in order to achieve a permanent reduction or elimination of the memory's traumatic aftereffects.     

Conceptualizing Trauma and Resilience Across Diverse Contexts

Abstract

This paper offers a multicultural understanding of trauma and resilience as experienced in the lives of individuals from diverse cultural and racial backgrounds. The research and clinical literature on resilience has focused largely if not exclusively on individual personality traits and coping styles, and has neglected to explore all possible sources and expressions of resilience in individuals and groups. For many ethnic minorities, traditional notions of resilience, shaped largely by middle class European and North American values, may not capture culturally more familiar modes of positive adaptation to adverse and traumatic experience. This paper explores the concept of resilience as a multidetermined phenomenon, and considers the implications of this perspective for clinical research and intervention with ethnic minorities.     

Autobiographical Memory Disturbances in Childhood Abuse Survivors

Summary

Clinicians have noted that childhood abuse survivors frequently report that they have forgotten large parts of their childhood. While memory for abusive experiences has attracted a great deal of attention from researchers, other types of memory disturbances may also accompany a history of childhood trauma. Many clinicians report that certain types of sexual abuse, and abuse at certain developmental stages, is more likely to result in reports of gaps in memory for the abuse. However, because information has been mainly collected in clinical populations, the possibility of confounding between abusive experiences and psychological disturbances cannot be ruled out. This article reports on data gathered from a large, epidemiologic study conducted within a health maintenance organization. A history of childhood physical or sexual abuse doubled the prevalence of general autobiographical memory loss for women, while for men, the rate increased 1.5 times over those with no abuse history. Higher rates of autobiographical memory loss were noted where both types of abuse were reported. Further, multiple incidents of sexual abuse, sexual abuse by a relative, and more severe sexual abuse increased reports of autobiographical memory loss. Theoretical perspectives on changes in the memory system that may affect trauma survivors are discussed.     

The Neglected Variable of Physiology in Domestic Violence

Summary

In the early stages of research concerning domestic violence and its effects on children, scholars have focused almost exclusively on isolated psychological variables. Little attention has been paid to events that might inform the research community about the effects of physiological factors surrounding such exposure on children's subsequent development. In order to go beyond a narrow disciplinary perspective that would exclude such important variables, a broader research agenda that includes multiple partners must be forged. The understanding of multiple etiologies and sequelae of domestic violence requires the use of comprehensive conceptual models that can bring together multiple theoretical perspectives under a broad umbrella. This article presents a developmental ecological perspective that allows for a more thorough and accurate examination of the influences of domestic violence on child development by simultaneously addressing child and environmental characteristics.