Victimization and traumatic stress: Pathways to depressive symptoms among low-income,African-American girls

Socioeconomic disadvantage is associated with increased exposure to victimization and traumatic stress. The present study evaluates longitudinal pathways linking victimization and trauma to depressive symptoms in a socioeconomically disadvantaged sample of African-American adolescent girls seeking mental health services (N = 177, 12–16 years old at baseline). Girls completed four assessments over the course of three years (T1-T4). Depressive symptoms were assessed at T1-T3 using clinical interviews and questionnaires. At T4, lifetime history of victimization and traumatic stressors was evaluated with in-person interviews. Separate structural equation models tested longitudinal pathways from stressor frequency, severity, and duration to depressive symptoms. In all three models, higher levels of victimization and traumatic stressors were associated with significantly higher levels of depressive symptoms. More frequent stressors prior to T1 directly predicted depressive symptoms at T1 and indirectly predicted depressive symptoms at T2, which, in turn, predicted depressive symptoms at T3. A similar pattern emerged in the stressor severity and duration models. Findings support the idea that victimization and traumatic stressors are associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms and that, among treatment-seeking low-income adolescent girls, these effects occur through both direct and indirect paths. Implications of these findings are discussed in the context of the stress-generation and stress proliferation models of psychopathology.     

One Down,Two Involved: An Application and Extension of Inconsistent Nurturing as Control Theory to Couples Including One Depressed Individual

About 10% of the US population suffers from depression (NIMH, 2000/2001) affecting both the client and his/her family members. This study applies Inconsistent Nurturing as Control Theory (Le Poire, 1994) to romantic relationships with depressed individuals (N=68 couples) and examines types and patterns of attempts to curtail depression. Results from in-depth interviews of depressed individuals and their partners suggest partners change their communication strategies over time such that they use more negative strategies before they label depression problematic, actively help and encourage depressed individuals more after the labeling, and revert to a less consistent sequence of positive and negative strategies after the initial control strategies have proven unsuccessful. Implications for health challenges in romantic relationships are discussed.     

Intergenerational effects of war trauma among Palestinian families mediated via psychological maltreatment

We tested the hypothesis that intergenerational effects of parents’ war trauma on offspring's attachment and mental health are mediated by psychological maltreatment. Two hundred and forty children and their parents were sampled from a war-prone area, Gaza, Palestine. The parents reported the number and type of traumatic experiences of war they had had during their lifetime before the child's birth and during a current war when the child was 10–12 years old. The children reported their war traumas, experiences of psychological maltreatment, attachment security, and symptoms of posttraumatic stress (PTSS), depression, and aggression. The direct and indirect intergenerational effects of war trauma were tested in structural equation models. The hypotheses were confirmed for father's past war exposure, and disconfirmed for mother's war exposure. The father's past war trauma had a negative association with attachment security and positive association with the child's mental health problems mediated by increased psychological maltreatment. In contrast, the mother's past war trauma had a negative association with the child's depression via decreased psychological maltreatment. The mother's current war trauma had a negative association with the child's depression and aggression via decreased psychological maltreatment. Among fathers, past war exposure should be considered as a risk factor for psychological maltreatment of children and the associated attachment insecurity and mental health problems. Among mothers, war exposure as such could be given less clinical attention than PTSS in the prevention of psychological maltreatment of children.     

A process-oriented analysis of parent acculturation,parent socio-cultural stress,family processes,and Latina/o youth smoking and depressive symptoms

Latina/o youth in the U.S. are often characterized by elevated rates of cigarette smoking and depressive symptoms, and these rates appear to vary by youth acculturation and socio-cultural stress. Scholars suggest that parents’ cultural experiences may be important determinants of youth smoking and depressive symptoms. However, few studies have examined the influence of parent acculturation and related stressors on Latina/o youth smoking and depressive symptoms. To address this gap in the literature, in the current study we investigated how parent-reported acculturation, perceived discrimination, and negative context of reception affect youth smoking and depressive symptoms through parent reports of familism values and parenting. The longitudinal (4 waves) sample consisted of 302 Latina/o parent-adolescent dyads from Los Angeles (N = 150) and Miami (N = 152). Forty-seven percent of the adolescent sample was female (M age = 14.5 years), and 70% of the parents were mothers (M age = 41.10 years). Parents completed measures of acculturation, perceived discrimination, negative context of reception, familism values, and parenting. Youth completed measures regarding their smoking and symptoms of depression. Structural equation modeling suggested that parents’ collectivistic values (Time 1) and perceived discrimination (Time 1) predicted higher parental familism (Time 2), which in turn, predicted higher levels of positive/involved parenting (Time 3). Positive/involved parenting (Time 3), in turn, inversely predicted youth smoking (Time 4). These findings indicate that parents’ cultural experiences play important roles in their parenting, which in turn appears to influence Latino/a youth smoking. This study highlights the need for preventive interventions to attend to parents’ cultural experiences in the family (collectivistic values, familism values, and parenting) and the community (perceived discrimination).     

Pre-service teachers’ goals and future-time extension, concerns, and well-being

Human goal-processes are conceptualised in an action-theoretic model of motivation, in line with discourse on self-directed teachers. Eighty-eight pre-service teachers reported ideographic professionally-related goals and concerns, future-time extension of the goals, and well-being (self-esteem and depression). Thirteen goal and fifteen concern categories were identified. When the goals were ordered in a perceived future time-sequence these did not reflect discrete developmental stages of teachers. Goals were related to concerns in six content domains demonstrating the utility of investigating both. Goals and concerns were to some extent related to well-being.     

The relationship between childhood adversity,attachment, and internalizing behaviors in a diversion program for child-to-mother violence

Very little research has been conducted on the role of childhood adversity in child-to-parent violence. Childhood adversity places youth at risk for internalizing behaviors (i.e. anxiety and depression) and externalizing behaviors (i.e. aggression). The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships between childhood adversity, child–mother attachment, and internalizing behaviors among a sample of 80 youth who have been arrested for domestic battery against a mother. This study reported high prevalence rates of childhood adversity (mean score of 10 out of 17 events). Multiple regression analysis indicated that insecure attachment predicted depression among females (F(6, 73) = 4.87, p < 0.001), and previous experience with child maltreatment and/or witness to parental violence predicted anxiety among females (F(6, 73) = 3.08, p < 0.01). This study is the first study to explore childhood adversity among a sample of perpetrators of child-to-mother violence and notably adds to our understanding of the multiple pathways connecting childhood adversity, child–mother attachment, and depression and anxiety among a difficult to treat youth population.     

Involvement of Depressive Catecholamines as Thrombosis Risk/Inflammatory Markers in Non-Smoker,Non-Obese Congestive Heart Failure,Linked to Increased Epidermal Growth Factor-Receptor (EGF-R) Production

The EGF-R, also known as HER-1 or erbB-1 (EGF-R/HER-1/erbB-1), is a member of the human epithelial receptor tyrosine kinase family. sEGF-R is considered to play a role in cardiac (patho)physiology. We aimed to investigate whether soluble EGF-R is increased in congestive heart failure (CHF) patients and if related to disease severity. Soluble EGF-R, vitamin D, parathyroid hormone (PTH) was studied, and being evaluated in relation to Ca²⁺, lipids, hsCRP, fibrinogen, serotonin, norepinepherine (NE). The study compared non-smoker, non-obese male CHF patients (n = 50) with age and gender-matched essential hypertension (HTN) patients (n = 20). Moreover, comparison with healthy control volunteers (n = 20) were employed. EGF-R/HER-1/erbB-1 was higher (P = 0.013) in 50 CHF male patients mean 12 ± 0.7 fmol/ml, than in 20 HTN, 9.25 ± 0.6 fmol/ml or in 20 controls, 6.25 ± 1 fmol/ml. Serum EGF-R levels correlated positively with hsCRP and NE, and were highest among CVD patients (n = 70) as well as negatively with vitamin D and HDL-C. EGF-R/HER-1/erbB-1 levels are increased in HTN and more in CHF patients. This study confirms a strong association between catecholamines as well as EGF-R/HER-1/erbB-1 levels with PTH and low vitamin D levels, being related to hyperlipidemia and inflammation (hsCRP and fibrinogen) in CVD. Moreover, contributing to the complex process of the inflammatory component of atherosclerosis in hypertensive patients that leads eventually to CHF.     

霍尔顿·考尔菲德心理创伤的新精神分析研究

霍尔顿是《麦田里的守望者》的主人公,本文利用温尼科特的客体关系理论对其进行了全新的精神分析研究,指出霍尔顿早期心理创伤的根源在于弟弟艾里的死使其过早地失去了一个＂足够好的照顾者＂,并且在寄宿学校的生活又使其失去了一个＂促进性环境＂,从而使他的自体发展出现了障碍。而最后回到妹妹菲比的身边,他又找回了他的＂足够好的照顾者＂和他的＂促进性环境＂,妹妹菲比充当了分析师的角色。     

Pathways from childhood abuse to prospective revictimization: Depression,sex to reduce negative affect,and forecasted sexual behavior

Research suggests that adverse events in childhood, such as childhood physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, confer risk for later sexual assault. Psychological distress, coping strategies, and sexual behavior may help explain the path from childhood abuse to revictimization. The present study explored how the use of sex to regulate negative affect (SRNA) operates independently, and in combination with other psychosocial factors to increase college women's (N = 541) risk of experiencing prospective adult sexual assault (ASA). Sequential multiple mediator models in Mplus were used to assess the effect of three different forms of childhood abuse on prospective ASA, both independently and while controlling for other forms of childhood abuse. The indirect effect of adolescent sexual assault (AdolSA), depressive symptoms, SRNA, and participants’ response to a sex-related vignette was tested using bias-corrected bootstrapping. In the full path model, childhood emotional abuse and AdolSA predicted ASA, while childhood physical and sexual abuse were directly associated with AdolSA, but not ASA. Additionally, depressive symptoms and participants’ estimate of their likely behavior in a sex-related vignette directly predicted prospective ASA. Results using bootstrapping revealed that a history of childhood abuse predicted prospective ASA via diverse direct and indirect paths, as well as through a similar multiple mediator path. Overall, findings suggest that a combination of affective, coping, and sexual expectancy factors contribute to risk for revictimization in adult survivors of childhood abuse. Future research directions and targets for risk-reduction programming are discussed.     

Emotional support and adult depression in survivors of childhood sexual abuse

The goals of this study were to evaluate the effects of emotional support from friends and parents at two time points (adolescence and adulthood) on adult depression in a nationally representative sample of survivors of childhood sexual abuse (CSA), and examine whether the associations were moderated by the identity of the perpetrator (parent/caregiver vs. not). Data were taken from Waves I and IV of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). The study sample included 1,238 Add Health participants with a history of CSA and an equivalently sized comparison group of individuals with no history of CSA. Parental support was measured using four items from each wave that assessed the warmth of participants’ relationships with their parents and their satisfaction with those relationships. Friend support in adolescence was measured using participants’ perceptions of how much their friends cared about them and in adulthood using participants’ self-reported number of close friends. Depression was measured using a 10-item subscale of the CES-D. Logistic regressions showed that support from friends and parents in adulthood were significantly associated with lower odds of adult depression in CSA survivors who reported non-parent/caregiver abuse. Among survivors of parent/caregiver abuse, emotional support was not significantly associated with adult depression regardless of when or by whom it was provided. In conclusion, emotional support in adulthood from friends and parents is associated with reduced odds of adult depression in CSA survivors, but only in cases where the abuse was perpetrated by someone other than a parent or caregiver.