Childhood Maltreatment,Emotional Response Inhibition,and Suicide in Psychiatric Inpatients

Childhood abuse and/or neglect adversely influences development of neurocognitive systems that regulate affect and behavior. Poor inhibitory control over emotional reactions is thus one potential pathway from maltreatment to suicide. Adult psychiatric inpatients completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire and an emotional stop-signal task indexing negative emotional action termination (NEAT): the ability to inhibit ongoing motor reactions to aversive stimuli triggered by negative affect. Clinical interviews assessed suicidal thoughts and behaviors during hospitalization (n = 131) and at follow-up assessments 6 months later (n = 87). Our primary aim was to examine whether maltreatment history and NEAT explain overlapping variance in suicidal behaviors (1) retrospectively and (2) 6 months following hospital discharge. Contrary to prediction, childhood maltreatment was unrelated to history of suicidal behaviors. However, NEAT was consistently associated with prior suicidal acts, even controlling for suicidal ideation and demographic covariates. NEAT similarly contributed to the prediction of post-discharge suicidal behaviors, whereas we found no effect of maltreatment history. The present study suggests that NEAT captures suicide risk independently of childhood maltreatment. Results implicated NEAT impairment specifically, rather than broader response inhibition deficits (e.g., to positive stimuli), in past and future suicidal behaviors. These findings provide preliminary support for NEAT as a behavioral vulnerability marker for suicide, with implications for understanding links between maltreatment history and suicidal acts.     

Parents’ Experiences of Their Child’s Disclosure of Child Sexual Abuse

A child’s disclosure of sexual victimization is a difficult experience for parents and has been associated with traumatization, disbelief, denial, self-blame, and clinical difficulties. To date, most studies on parents’ responses have been quantitative assessments of the psychological impact of disclosure on parents. A paucity of research has qualitatively explored mothers’ experiences of their child’s disclosure of child sexual abuse (CSA) and fathers’ experiences have been even further neglected. The current study seeks to characterize parents’ experiences of their child’s disclosure of CSA and to uncover the process-oriented nature of parental responses. This qualitative study, using a grounded theory approach to analysis, involved interviews with 10 mothers and four fathers whose children (3–18 years) had experienced sexual abuse. Three themes emerged from the analysis. The first theme—making sense of the abuse in retrospect—captured the process through which parents sought to make sense of their child’s disclosure, focusing on why their child had not disclosed the abuse to them earlier, and how they had noticed something was wrong but misattributed their child’s behavior to other factors. The second theme—negotiating parental identity as protector—reflected how parents’ identity as a protector was challenged, their perception of their world had been forever altered, and they now experienced themselves as hypervigilant and overprotective. The final theme—navigating the services—pertained to parents’ struggle in navigating child protection and police services, and feelings of being isolated and alone. These findings highlight the need for empathy and parental support following child disclosure of sexual victimization.     

Perception,use and abolition of corporal punishment among high school teachers in a district in southwestern Nigeria

Students in many regions of the world experience corporal punishment in multiple settings, although what is currently known about corporal punishment is derived from parental corporal punishment. Using a convenience sample of 271 teachers in 14 public and private secondary schools in a district in southwestern Nigeria, this article describes the associations between perception, use and support for abolition of corporal punishment. Results suggest that having children, more corporal punishment of own children and higher frequency of corporal punishment by colleagues were associated with frequent use of corporal punishment. Frequency of corporal punishment by colleagues accounted for the strongest variance in frequent use of corporal punishment. Lower corporal punishment of own children was associated with higher endorsement of abolition of corporal punishment from schools, whereas being male was associated with higher endorsement of abolition of corporal punishment from society. Teachers endorsed abolition of corporal punishment not only from schools but also from society. These findings highlight the “bandwagon” effect and teacher characteristics as potential risk factors for sustained perpetration and transmission of corporal punishment and draw attention to the need for intervention on alternative approaches to corporal punishment that could facilitate the abolition of corporal punishment from home and schools.     

Is monkey maternal abuse of offspring aggressive behavior?

This study was intended to probe the aggressive nature of monkey infant abuse by comparing the morphology of abusive behavior patterns with that of patterns allocated to both aggression and other categories of behavioral repertoires of macaques. This morphological analysis indicated that most abusive patterns should not be classified in the aggression category as they, at the motor end, differ greatly from macaque aggressive acts. In contrast, they perfectly resemble behaviors that monkeys usually display while manipulating inanimate objects. The implications of this finding for the pathogenic study of monkey infant abuse are discussed.     

Le harcèlement : évolution du droit français et problématiques de l’évaluation des victimes

Medical doctors are often asked by patients victim of harassment, or even by the authorities, to establish medical certificate. Harassment is a complex phenomenon, covering a wide range of behaviours occurring in multiple situations. The writing of such a certificate can prove to be difficult, can be a cause of legal proceedings for clinicians, especially at a disciplinary level. Moreover, the evaluation is all the more complex since the qualification of harassment by the judge sometimes requires an evaluation of the impact on the victims under the form of a Total Work Incapacity (TWI) duration, but not under all the circumstances existing in French law. In this article, we first propose to address general consideration towards the writing of the certificate, before doing a systematic review of the successive evolutions of French penal and labour law regarding harassment in its most frequent forms. Finally, we propose to address the matter of victims evaluation, especially towards TWI duration evaluation, which does not seem to us an adapted tool regarding the fact that harassment is usually a chronical and durable phenomenon.     

A thematic analysis of practitioners' understanding of domestic abuse in terms of post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex‐PTSD (C‐PTSD)

There is a growing body of evidence suggesting that domestic abuse (DA) should be conceptualised within the complex post‐traumatic stress disorder (C‐PTSD) model. Recently, in the draft of the International Classification of Diseases, Eleventh Revision, produced by the World Health Organization (WHO), C‐PTSD was included as a separate criterion in which DA is incorporated (ICD‐11, WHO, 2018). In this study, a thematic analysis was used to explore to what extent practitioners working with DA survivors are familiar with PTSD and C‐PTSD. Research into such a prevalent and detrimental problem as DA is important to understand whether the development of theoretical knowledge about DA and C‐PTSD is addressed in practice. In a Women's Centre in South London, six semi‐structured interviews with middle‐aged female practitioners were conducted to investigate each counsellor's experiences, knowledge and reflections. Six final themes were constructed to summarise the main results. The findings demonstrate limited practitioner understanding of DA in terms of C‐PTSD, which seems to impact not only the effectiveness of treatment plans with DA survivors, but also counsellors’ own psychological and physical states. It is also indicated that DA can be conceptualised within the C‐PTSD model that corresponds with previous literature indicating the complex nature of DA. The overall results of the current research acknowledge that DA sectors should not be neglected and better funding and effective psychoeducation in this field are needed.     

Beyond bruises and broken bones: the joint effects of stress and injuries on battered women's health

We investigated the joint mediating effects of injuries and stress on the relationship between abuse and women's health. A community sample of 397 women, half of whom had been assaulted by an intimate partner within the prior 6 months, was interviewed about their experience of intimate partner violence, injuries, stress, income, depression, and physical health problems. Structural equation modeling techniques confirmed the complex model of hypothesized indirect effects of abuse on women's physical health problems through injuries, stress, and depression. Stress accounted for 80% of the indirect effect of abuse on women's physical health. Its direct effect on physical health was somewhat larger than its indirect effect through depression, but both processes played a key role in determining the effect of abuse on women's physical health problems. Furthermore, abuse was a stronger predictor of women's stress than was poverty. Implication and future research are discussed.     

The Good Behavior Game: a best practice candidate as a universal behavioral vaccine

A behavioral vaccine provides an inoculation against morbidity or mortality, impacting physical, mental, or behavior disorders. An historical example of a behavioral vaccine is antiseptic hand washing to reduce childbed fever. In current society, issues with high levels of morbidity, such as substance abuse, delinquency, youth violence, and other behavioral disorders (multiproblems), cry out for a low-cost, widespread strategy as simple as antiseptic hand washing. Congruent research findings from longitudinal studies, twin studies, and other investigations suggest that a possibility might exist for a behavioral vaccine for multiproblem behavior. A simple behavioral strategy called the Good Behavior Game (GBG), which reinforces inhibition in a group context of elementary school, has substantial previous research to consider its use as a behavioral vaccine. The GBG is not a curriculum but rather a simple behavioral procedure from applied behavior analysis. Approximately 20 independent replications of the GBG across different grade levels, different types of students, different settings, and some with long-term follow-up show strong, consistent impact on impulsive, disruptive behaviors of children and teens as well as reductions in substance use or serious antisocial behaviors. The GBG, named as a best practice for the prevention of substance abuse or violent behavior by a number of federal agencies, is unique because it is the only practice implemented by individual teachers that is documented to have long-term effects. Presently, the GBG is only used in a small number of settings. However, near universal use of the GBG, in major political jurisdictions during the elementary years, could substantially reduce the incidence of substance use, antisocial behavior, and other adverse developmental or social consequences at a very modest cost, with very positive cost-effectiveness ratios.     

Family-Based Therapy for Adolescent Drug Abuse: Knowns and Unknowns

Family-based therapy is one of the most thoroughly studied treatments for adolescent drug abuse. Considerable empirical support exists for the efficacy of family-based therapy in curtailing adolescent drug use and cooccurring behavior problems. This article extends knowledge of the effects of family-based therapy for adolescent drug abuse by reviewing 16 controlled trials and 4 therapy process studies from a treatment development perspective. We articulate knowns and unknowns regarding the outcomes of treatment as well as the components, processes, mechanisms, moderators, and boundaries of effective family-based therapy for adolescent drug abuse. The review highlights areas of progress and future research needs within the specialty of family-based therapy for adolescent drug abuse.