Childhood Maltreatment and PTSD: Spiritual Well-Being and Intimate Partner Violence as Mediators |
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Authors: | Huaiyu Zhang Delishia M. Pittman Nicole L. Fischer Tomina J. Schwenke Erika R. Carr |
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Affiliation: | 1. Department of Psychiatry, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA;2. Department of Counseling and Human Development, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA;3. Marymount University, Arlington, Virginia, USA;4. Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Department of Disabilities, Atlanta, Georgia, USA;5. Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA |
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Abstract: | Childhood maltreatment places individuals, including African American women who are undereducated and economically disadvantaged, at risk for developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Participants were 192 African American women with a history in the prior year of both a suicide attempt and intimate partner violence (IPV) exposure. They were recruited from a public hospital that provides medical and mental health treatment to mostly low-income patients. A simple mediator model was used to examine if (a) existential well-being (sense of purpose) or religious well-being (relationship with God) mediated the link between childhood maltreatment and adult PTSD symptoms. Sequential multiple mediator models determined if physical and nonphysical IPV enhanced our understanding of the mediational association among the aforementioned variables. Findings suggest that existential well-being mediated the association between childhood maltreatment and adult PTSD symptoms in a simple mediator model, and existential well-being and recent nonphysical IPV served as sequential multiple mediators of this link. However, religious well-being and physical IPV were not significant mediators. Findings underscore the importance of enhancing existential well-being in the treatment of suicidal African American women with a history of childhood maltreatment and IPV. |
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Keywords: | African American women existential well-being PTSD symptoms religious well-being childhood maltreatment intimate partner violence |
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