[Editor's note: Dr. Harise Stein at Stanford University edits a web site — abuseresearch.info — that focuses on the effects of abuse, and includes research articles on PACEs. Every month, she posts the summaries of the abstracts and links to research articles that address only ACEs, PCEs and PACEs. Thank you, Harise!! — Jane Stevens]
Child Abuse
Clemens V, Köhler-Dauner F, Ziegenhain U, Fegert JM.
Predictors of Parental Coping During the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Survey in Germany. Front Psychol. 2021 Sep 10;12:715327. PMID: 34566797
From a survey of 687 German parents of minors during the first lockdown due to the pandemic, younger age of the respective child, income loss, dissatisfaction with the sharing of childcare duties, and parental ACEs were significantly associated with an increase of potential harmful parenting behavior.
Zarei K, Xu G, Zimmerman B, Giannotti M, Strathearn L.
Adverse Childhood Experiences Predict Common Neurodevelopmental and Behavioral Health Conditions among U.S. Children. Children (Basel). 2021 Aug 31;8(9):761. PMID: 34572191
From a large national pediatric database, household challenge ACEs (not including child maltreatment) were over 6-9 times more likely to be associated with behavior problems, depression, and substance use disorder. Increasing learning disability and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder were also associated with increases of these ACEs.
Singh A, Shah N, Mbeledogu C, Garstang J.
Child wellbeing in the United Kingdom following the COVID-19 lockdowns. Paediatr Child Health (Oxford). 2021 Dec;31(12):445-448. PMID: 34630631
“Children have suffered directly with lack of access to healthcare, and a decline in their mental health. Infant bonding may have been affected due to maternal stress, anxiety or depression, compounded by limited Health Visitor support. Poverty, food insecurity and lack of exercise contributed to increased obesity. Many children will have been exposed to domestic violence, parental mental illness and child abuse without being able to tell teachers or other adults outside of the home, and these Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) increase the risk for subsequent health and behaviour problems. Children have spent many hours online for school learning and socialising with friends but faced risks of criminal exploitation and grooming.”
Adult Manifestations of Child Abuse
Layfield SD, Duffy LA, Phillips KA, et. al.
Multiomic biological approaches to the study of child abuse and neglect. Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 2021 Nov;210:173271. PMID: 34508786
“This review begins by providing an overview of childhood abuse, neglect, maltreatment, threat, and toxic stress, and the effects of these forms of adversity on the developing body, brain, and behavior. It then examines examples from the current literature of genomic, epigenomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic discoveries and biomarkers that may help to understand risk and resilience in the aftermath of trauma, predictors of traumatic exposure risk, and potential targets for intervention and prevention.”
Salonsalmi A, Pietiläinen O, Lahelma E, et. al.
Contributions of childhood adversities to chronic pain among mid-life employees. Scand J Public Health. 2021 Jan 18:1403494820981509. PMID: 33461395
Among 40-60-year-old Finnish employees (80% women), “childhood economic difficulties (Odds ratio =1.60), childhood illness (OR=1.74), parental divorce (OR=1.26), parental alcohol problems (OR=1.34) and bullying at school or among peers (OR=1.59) were associated with chronic pain. Working conditions, sleep problems and common mental disorders each slightly attenuated the associations between childhood adversities and chronic pain…the well-being of children might prevent pain and promote well-being in mid-life.”
Miller ES, Fleming O, Ekpe EE, Grobman WA, Heard-Garris N.
Association Between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes. Obstet Gynecol. 2021 Nov 1;138(5):770-776. PMID: 34619717
For 1274 pregnant women enrolled in a mental health program for perinatal depression support, 73% reported an ACE score of 1, and 23% reported 3+ ACEs. After controlling for various factors, “Having a high ACE score was associated with an increased risk of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and preterm birth.”
Kerkar S, Shankar A, Boynton-Jarrett R, Harville EW.
Adverse Childhood Experiences are Associated with Miscarriage in Adulthood: The GROWH Study. Matern Child Health J. 2021 Mar;25(3):479-486. PMID: 33389588
Using data from 1511 reproductive age women from Louisiana Clinics, those with 4+ ACEs were 1.71 times more likely to experience miscarriage during first pregnancy, and 1.74 times for any pregnancy.
Giano Z, Ernst CW, Snider K, Davis A, O’Neil AM, Hubach RD.
ACE domains and depression: Investigating which specific domains are associated with depression in adulthood. Child Abuse Negl. 2021 Sep 27;122:105335. PMID: 34592672
From a large national survey, “Across all ACE scores, those with a history of family mental illness had the highest likelihood of receiving a depression diagnosis. The second strongest association were those with sexual abuse. No other trends were found among the six other domains. Further, those with a combination of family mental illness and sexual abuse had the highest odds of depression.”
Yang JZ, Kang CY, Yuan J, Zhang Y, Wei YJ, Xu L, Zhou F, Fan X.
Effect of adverse childhood experiences on hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis function and antidepressant efficacy in untreated first episode patients with major depressive disorder. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2021 Sep 25;134:105432. PMID: 34607174
Of 330 Chinese patients with major depression who were treated for the first time with one of 4 anti-depressants, a history of ACEs significantly decreased medication efficacy. A 12-week response was achieved by 37.2% in the ACEs group vs. 59.0% without ACEs. Remission was achieved by 15.2% in the ACEs group vs. 32.2% without ACEs. Exposure to ACEs also influenced measurements of the stress hormone system and was associated with more severe symptoms of depression.
Liu M, Luong L, Lachaud J, Edalati H, Reeves A, Hwang SW.
Adverse childhood experiences and related outcomes among adults experiencing homelessness: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet Public Health. 2021 Sep 29:S2468-2667(21)00189-4. PMID: 34599894
From a research review, lifetime prevalence of one or more ACEs among homeless adults was 89.8% and the lifetime prevalence of four or more ACEs was 53.9%. ACEs were consistently positively associated with high suicidality, suicide attempt, major depressive disorder, substance misuse, and adult victimization.
Cintora P, Laurent HK.
Childhood Trauma Exposure Exacerbates the Impact of Concurrent Exposure to Intimate Partner Violence on Women's Posttraumatic Symptoms. J Trauma Stress. 2020 Dec;33(6):1102-1110. PMID: 32557954
In this study of low-income mothers followed for 18 months postpartum, increasing IPV led to increasing PTSD symptoms over time. This effect was heightened when women reported a history of childhood maltreatment.
Tiwari A, Andrews K, Casey R, Liu A, Tonmyr L, Gonzalez A.
Associations Among Child Maltreatment, Mental Health, and Police Contact in Adulthood: Findings From a National Canadian Sample. J Interpers Violence. 2021 Sep;36(17-18):8741-8767. PMID: 31161854
From a survey of 23,846 Canadian adults, childhood experience of physical abuse, sexual abuse, and adult IPV were each associated with 2-3 times increased contact with police as either a criminal or a victim. Victimization contact increased with increasing number of childhood maltreatment types.
Schickedanz A, Escarce JJ, Halfon N, Sastry N, Chung PJ.
Intergenerational Associations between Parents’ and Children’s Adverse Childhood Experience Scores. Children (Basel). 2021 Aug 29;8(9):747. PMID: 34572179
“Among 2205 parent-child dyads, children of parents with four or more ACEs had 3.25-fold higher risk of experiencing four or more ACEs themselves, compared to children of parents without ACEs.”
Howell KH, Miller-Graff LE, Martinez-Torteya C, et. al.
Charting a Course towards Resilience Following Adverse Childhood Experiences: Addressing Intergenerational Trauma via Strengths-Based Intervention. Children (Basel). 2021 Sep 24;8(10):844. PMID: 34682109
“This review brings together various biological, psychological, and sociological principles that inform our understanding of ACEs and our approach to treatment. Specifically, we document the evolution of ACEs research, focusing on the intergenerational impact of ACEs, the importance of incorporating a resilience framework when examining ACEs, and implementing interventions that address adversity across generations and at multiple levels.”
MacIntosh HB, Ménard AD.
Where are We Now? A Consolidation of the Research on Long-term Impact of Child Sexual Abuse. J Child Sex Abus. 2021 Apr;30(3):253-257. PMID: 33988087
Introduction to this special issue on long-term impacts of childhood sexual abuse on adult functioning and wellbeing. Table of Contents with abstracts
Lin L, Wang HH, Lu C, Chen W, Guo VY.
Adverse Childhood Experiences and Subsequent Chronic Diseases Among Middle-aged or Older Adults in China and Associations With Demographic and Socioeconomic Characteristics.
JAMA Netw Open. 2021 Oct 1;4(10):e2130143. PMID: 34694390
From a large national study in China of respondents aged 45 years or older and who had at least one chronic disease, 80.9% reported at least 1 ACE, and 18.0% reported 4+ ACEs. “Compared with those without ACE exposure, participants who experienced 4 or more ACEs had increased risks of dyslipidemia, chronic lung disease, asthma, liver disease, digestive disease, kidney disease, arthritis, psychiatric disease, memory-related disease, and multimorbidity…regardless of demographic and socioeconomic characteristics during childhood or adulthood.”
Tracy EL, Tracy CT, Kim JJ, Yang R, Kim E.
Cascading effects of childhood abuse on physical health issues in later adulthood through trait anxiety and poor daily sleep quality. J Health Psychol. 2021 Oct;26(12):2342-2348. PMID: 32114830
As part of a US national mid-life study, “Individuals who reported a higher level of childhood abuse reported a higher level of trait anxiety and a lower level of daily sleep quality, leading to an increase in physical health issues. The results highlight the cascading effects of childhood abuse on serious health consequences over the life span.”
Haddad S, Martin-Marchand L, Lafaysse M, et. al.
Repeat induced abortion and adverse childhood experiences in Aquitaine, France: a cross-sectional survey. Eur J Contracept Reprod Health Care. 2021 Feb;26(1):29-35. PMID: 32914679
This study of 806 French women at 25 abortion centers showed a graded link between the extent of ACE exposure and the occurrence of repeat induced abortions, with those with high ACE exposure 7.73 times more likely to have had 3+ abortions.
Schönfelder A, Rath D, Forkmann T, et. al.
Is the relationship between child abuse and suicide attempts mediated by nonsuicidal self-injury and pain tolerance? Clin Psychol Psychother. 2021 Jan;28(1):189-199. PMID: 32816347
For 308 German psychiatric inpatients with a recent suicidal crisis, all types of childhood abuse showed a relationship with non-suicidal self-injury, such as cutting, which itself was “an important predictor for suicide attempts and should be considered in suicide risk assessment.”
al'Absi M.
The influence of stress and early life adversity on addiction: Psychobiological mechanisms of risk and resilience. Int Rev Neurobiol. 2020;152:71-100. PMID: 32451001
“Preclinical, clinical, and population research demonstrates that stress and early life adversity (ELA) increase vulnerability to initiate, maintain, and relapse in addiction…Our model proposes that long-term effects of stress and ELA on the brain contribute to dysregulation of the stress response, emotional reactivity, reward systems, cognitive dysregulation, and delay discounting that lead to impulsive and high-risk behaviors, such as drug use and relapse.”
Chen G, Gueta K, Ronel N.
Does Self-Change Occur Among Severely Dependent Substance Users? J Psychoactive Drugs. 2020 Sep-Oct;52(4):357-365. PMID: 32490757
For 229 Israeli adults with substance use disorders (SUDs) who were able to move away from addiction, the severity of substance dependence did not differentiate between self-changers and treatment-changers, but rather the severity of psychiatric problems and history of child abuse did. “This indicates a need for treatment interventions targeting all three issues of childhood trauma, SUDs, and psychiatric problems.”
Clemens V, Beschoner P, Jarczok MN, et. al.
The mediating role of COVID-19-related burden in the association between adverse childhood experiences and emotional exhaustion: results of the egePan – VOICE study. Eur J Psychotraumatol. 2021 Oct 1;12(1):1976441. PMID: 34621498
In this survey of 2500 German healthcare professionals during the first lockdown of the pandemic, all types of ACEs were associated with increased emotional exhaustion (EE) on the burnout scale, and there was a positive direct association between increasing ACE score and increasing EE.
Adolescents
Kim-Spoon J, Herd T, Brieant A, Peviani K, et. al.
Maltreatment and brain development: The effects of abuse and neglect on longitudinal trajectories of neural activation during risk processing and cognitive control. Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2021 Apr;48:100939. PMID: 33706181
From brain scans of 167 adolescents assessed annually over 4 years to determine impact of maltreatment, results showed different effects as the result of neglect or abuse. Neglect was associated with detrimental neurodevelopment of the brain valuation system - estimating the value of alternative options - while abuse had negative effects on the brain control system - control over the pursuit or avoidance of risky options.
Babad S, Zwilling A, Carson KW, et. al.
Risk-Taking Propensity and Sensation Seeking in Survivors of Adverse Childhood Experiences. J Interpers Violence. 2021 Oct;36(19-20):NP10670-NP10687. PMID: 31538863
“ACEs related to environmental instability may have a unique impact on sensation seeking domains in emerging adults. Clarifying the role of sensation seeking in emerging adults can contribute to better understanding of risk and resilience factors in this vulnerable population.”
Mitchell JM, Becker-Blease KA, Soicher RN.
Child Sexual Abuse, Academic Functioning and Educational Outcomes in Emerging Adulthood. J Child Sex Abus. 2021 Apr;30(3):278-297. PMID: 33416025
“In many parts of the world, emerging adults, aged 18 to 25 years old, require education beyond high school to transition to a stable, secure adulthood. Child abuse, trauma, victimization, and adversity have been shown to negatively affect academic functioning and educational attainment during childhood and adolescence. Despite this, many emerging adults who have experienced these adverse events also show remarkable resilience…We find initial evidence that academic functioning and educational outcomes are separable, with more research needed.”
Sani F, Herrera M, Bielawska K.
Child maltreatment is linked to difficulties in identifying with social groups as a young adult. Br J Dev Psychol. 2020 Oct;38(4):491-496. PMID: 32227369
“Subjective feelings of disconnectedness from social groups have been found to be detrimental to mental health…across the lifespan.” In this study of 396 Spanish young adults, “a greater degree of maltreatment received before the age of 14 is linked to a lower number of social groups one identifies with, even after controlling for current levels of depression, anxiety, and borderline personality.”
Domestic Violence – Effects on Children
Ahmad SI, Rudd KL, LeWinn KZ, et. al.
Maternal childhood trauma and prenatal stressors are associated with child behavioral health. J Dev Orig Health Dis. 2021 Oct 20:1-11. PMID: 34666865
Using data from a study of 1503 mother-child pairs from pregnancy, and adjusting for multiple factors, “maternal childhood trauma, socioeconomic risk, and intimate partner violence were independently, positively associated with child socioemotional-behavioral problems at age one…modifiable environmental factors, including knowledge regarding child development, can mitigate these risks. Both findings support the importance of parental screening and early intervention to promote child socioemotional-behavioral health.”
LGBTQ Concerns
Scheer JR, Clark KA, Talan A, et. al.
Longitudinal associations between childhood sexual abuse-related PTSD symptoms and passive and active suicidal ideation among sexual minority men. Child Abuse Negl. 2021 Oct 9;122:105353. PMID: 34638046
From a survey of 6305 sexual minority men, mean age 33.2 years and 53.5% White, those with a history of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) were 2.5 times more likely to report suicidality than those without a CSA history. CSA-related PTSD was associated with passive suicidal ideation, and regardless of PTSD severity, suicidal ideation was increased in those with lower social support and greater loneliness.
Race/Cultural Concerns
Harris LK, Berry DC, Cortés YI.
Psychosocial factors related to Cardiovascular Disease Risk in Young African American Women: a systematic review. Ethn Health. 2021 Oct 20:1-19. PMID: 34668802
Findings from this review suggest that exposure to adverse psychosocial factors (perceived stress, racial discrimination, internalized racism, depression) may be related to increased CVD risk (higher body mass index and increased blood pressure) in early adulthood (age 19-24) in African American women.
Helminen EC, Scheer JR, Edwards KM, Felver JC.
Adverse childhood experiences exacerbate the association between day-to-day discrimination and mental health symptomatology in undergraduate students. J Affect Disord. 2021 Oct 26:S0165-0327(21)01136-8. PMID: 34715169
For 250 undergraduates, participants with greater discrimination exposure and ACEs reported significantly more depression, anxiety, physical symptoms, and more psychological distress, relative to those with less discrimination exposure and few or no ACEs. Both ACEs and discrimination seemed to have an additive negative impact on mental health. “Reported discrimination experiences included ancestry or national origin, gender, race/skin color, age, religion, height, weight, other aspect of physical appearance, sexual orientation, education/income, and physical disability.
Dormire SL, Gary JC, Norman JM, Harvey IS. Insights into fear: A phenomenological study of Black mothers. J Adv Nurs. 2021 Nov;77(11):4490-4499. PMID: 34245167
“Previous research has found that Black populations in America fear for their safety. This study identified a pervasive and profound fear for their children, specifically sons who are at a higher risk of being killed in normal daily activities. Mothers also expressed fears about their responsibility to keep them safe by providing the right tools.”
Providers
Balneg K, Van Winkle K.
Do adverse childhood experiences lead to poorer health outcomes? Nursing. 2021 Oct 1;51(10):15-17. PMID: 34580257
This brief review for nurses on the health effects of ACEs includes the nurses’ role and resources.
Sherfinski HT, Condit PE, Williams Al-Kharusy SS, et. al.
Adverse Childhood Experiences: Perceptions, Practices, and Possibilities. WMJ. 2021 Oct;120(3):209-217. PMID: 34710303
This research review concluded “ACEs are a public health concern. However…A large proportion of providers and trainees are unaware of the effects of adverse childhood experiences…the long-term effects of trainings remain largely unexplored. Barriers such as a lack of time, resources, comfort, or consensus regarding how to ethically screen impede broader efforts to implement systematic screenings for adverse childhood experiences.”
Schweer-Collins M, Lanier P.
Health Care Access and Quality Among Children Exposed to Adversity: Implications for Universal Screening of ACEs. Matern Child Health J. 2021 Dec;25(12):1903-1912. PMID: 34665356
From a large national study, high ACEs (4 or more) were associated with lower quality of provider care, including effective care coordination, family-centered care, shared decision making, and referrals for care. Children with high ACEs were also less likely to have a medical home and also had significantly greater difficulty accessing mental health treatment. Similar results were found for children in the moderate ACE (2-3) and low ACE (1) groups…Because findings indicate that children with high ACEs may be the least likely to receive quality care or necessary mental health treatment to address this adversity, universal screening for ACEs should be considered with caution.”
Lucas C, Crowell KR, Olympia RP.
School Nurses on the Front Lines of Healthcare: Red Flags and Red Herrings: Improving the Recognition of Bruises and Burns Associated With Physical Abuse in School-Age Children. NASN Sch Nurse. 2021 Jan;36(1):32-38. PMID: 32741252
“Through a series of case scenarios, this article describes the assessment and management of suspected physical child abuse presenting as bruises and burns. Although it is not uncommon for school-age children to have accidental injuries, recognizing patterns associated with physical child abuse and understanding red flags for abuse is vital…failure to intervene appropriately may leave children at risk for more serious injury or death.”
Constantian MB, Zaborek N.
The Prevalence of Adverse Childhood Experiences, Body Shame, and Revision Request Rate in 218 Plastic Surgery Patients: What Drives Postoperative Dissatisfaction? Plast Reconstr Surg. 2021 Dec 1;148(6):1233-1246. PMID: 34644275
218 consecutive plastic surgery patients (86% aesthetic and 14% reconstructive) completed the ACE Survey and the Experience of Shame Scale. Compared to the general population, patients in this study had higher overall adverse childhood experience prevalence (79.8% versus 64%), emotional abuse (41% versus 11%), emotional neglect (38% versus 15%), family substance abuse (36% versus 27%), and family mental illness (29% versus 19%). 52% had body shame, which was predicted by ACE score. Body shame was associated with more cosmetic operations, more health problems, higher antidepressant use, substance abuse history, demands for additional pain medication, and requests for surgical revision (49% versus 17%).
Intimate Partner Violence, Animal Maltreatment, and Concern for Animal Safekeeping: A Survey of Survivors Who Owned Pets and Livestock. Violence Against Women. 2021 Oct 14:10778012211034215. PMID: 34647504
In this disturbing qualitative and quantitative study of Canadian pet and livestock owners experiencing IPV, 34.5% stated that care for their companion animals prevented them from seeking assistance for IPV. 32.4% reported that their children had witnessed pets being abused, threated, starved or even killed, and perpetrators had refused to allow veterinary care, which prolonged suffering. Several participants put themselves in the path of violence to protect their animals. “I just wish that all safe houses would include whatever pets the woman and her family have.”
Prevention
Rogel A, Loomis AM, Hamlin E, et. al.
The impact of neurofeedback training on children with developmental trauma: A randomized controlled study. Psychol Trauma. 2020 Nov;12(8):918-929. PMID: 32658503
“This pilot study demonstrated that 24 sessions of neurofeedback training significantly decreased PTSD symptoms, internalizing, externalizing, other behavioral and emotional symptoms, and significantly improved the executive functioning of children aged 6-13 years with severe histories of abuse and neglect who had not significantly benefited from any previous therapy.”
Donofry SD, Stillman CM, Hanson JL, et. al.
Promoting brain health through physical activity among adults exposed to early life adversity: Potential mechanisms and theoretical framework. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2021 Oct 5:S0149-7634(21)00439-5. PMID: 34624365
Authors review the influence of early life adversity (ELA) on brain health in adulthood, and highlight evidence for the role of physical activity on brain growth factors, stress hormones, inflammation, and epigenetics as a low cost behavioral approach to address the long-term consequences of ELA.
Mehta D, Kelly AB, Laurens KR, et. al.
Child Maltreatment and Long-Term Physical and Mental Health Outcomes: An Exploration of BiopsychosocialDeterminants and Implications for Prevention. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev. 2021 Sep 29:1–15. PMID: 34586552
“This review has highlighted the high and most likely underestimated prevalence of child maltreatment, the ongoing challenges of measurement, the profound and long-lasting impacts of child maltreatment on mental and physical health, and the substantial economic costs associated with these impacts…Five recommendations relating to the accurate measurement of trends, research on brain structures and processes, improving the reach and impact of teleservices for detecting, preventing and treating child maladjustment, community-based approaches, and building population-focused multidisciplinary alliances and think tanks are presented.”
Ross KM, Cole S, Sanghera H, Anis L, Hart M, Letourneau N.
The ATTACH™ program and immune cell gene expression profiles in mothers and children: A pilot randomized controlled trial. Brain Behav Immun Health. 2021 Oct 2;18:100358. PMID: 34647106
For 20 mother-child pairs recruited from a Canadian domestic violence shelter, a 10 week psycho-educational intervention that fosters maternal reflective function showed, after controlling for various factors, that both mother and child participants had “healthier immune cell gene expression profiles post-intervention compared with wait-list controls. Parenting interventions could decrease the impact of toxic stress on maternal-child immune health.”
Researchers
Adkins-Jackson PB, Chantarat T, Bailey ZD, Ponce NA.
Measuring Structural Racism: A guide for epidemiologists and other health researchers. Am J Epidemiol. 2021 Sep 25:kwab239. PMID: 34564723
“The goal of this commentary is to inspire the use of up-to-date and theoretically-driven approaches to increase discourse amongst public health researchers on capturing racism as well as to improve evidence of its role as the fundamental cause of racial health inequities.”
Pavarini G, Smith LM, Shaughnessy N, et. al.
Ethical issues in participatory arts methods for young people with adverse childhood experiences. Health Expect. 2021 Oct;24(5):1557-1569. PMID: 34318573
Authors take a detailed look at ethical issues between researchers and vulnerable adolescents with ACEs who are involved in arts-based research. Ethical guidance is offered for project entry, participation, and dissemination of results.
Meehan AJ, Baldwin JR, Lewis SJ, MacLeod JG, Danese A.
Poor Individual Risk Classification From Adverse Childhood Experiences Screening. Am J Prev Med. 2021 Oct 9:S0749-3797(21)00456-6. PMID: 34635382
“The classification accuracy of a recommended clinical definition for high-risk exposure (≥4 versus 0-3 adverse childhood experiences) was evaluated on the basis of sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, and positive likelihood ratios…findings suggest that screening based on the adverse childhood experience score does not accurately identify those individuals at high risk of health problems. This can lead to both allocation of unnecessary interventions and lack of provision of necessary support.”
Linde-Krieger LB, Moon CM, Yates TM.
The Implications of Self-Definitions of Child Sexual Abuse for Understanding Socioemotional Adaptation in Young Adulthood. J Child Sex Abus. 2021 Jan;30(1):80-101. PMID: 33206584
In a large and ethnically diverse college student sample of 2,195, those who objectively and subjectively perceived themselves as having experienced childhood sexual abuse showed the largest elevations in mental health and risk behaviors, whereas survivors who did not perceive their experiences as “abuse” evidenced the largest deficits in how they perceived themselves. “These findings indicate that standard screening criteria may misidentify a sizable group of CSA survivors because these individuals do not perceive their experiences as ‘abuse’”.
Other of Interest
Smitherman LC, Golden WC, Walton JR.
Health Disparities and Their Effects on Children and Their Caregivers During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic. Pediatr Clin North Am. 2021 Oct;68(5):1133-1145. PMID: 34538304
“The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has uncovered long-standing health disparities in marginalized communities, including racial and ethnic minorities and children with underlying medical and social problems. African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans have higher rates of COVID-19 infections and deaths than their population percentages in the United States. Unique populations of children, including children with developmental disabilities, children in the foster care system, children with chronic medical problems, and children who are homeless are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 infection. This article explores how the COVID-19 pandemic superimposed on health disparities directly and indirectly affects children, adolescents, and their caregivers.”
Balfour ME, Hahn Stephenson A, Delany-Brumsey A,et. al.
Cops, Clinicians, or Both? Collaborative Approaches to Responding to Behavioral Health Emergencies. Psychiatr Serv. 2021 Oct 20:appips202000721. PMID: 34666512
“How a community responds to behavioral health emergencies is both a public health issue and social justice issue…Such crises account for a quarter of police shootings and >2 million jail bookings per year…This policy article reviews best practices for law enforcement crisis responses, outlines the components of a comprehensive continuum-of-crisis care model that provides alternatives to law enforcement involvement and ED use, and offers strategies for collaboration and alignment between law enforcement and clinicians toward common goals. Finally, policy considerations regarding stakeholder engagement, financing, data management, legal statutes, and health equity are presented to assist communities interested in taking steps to build these needed solutions.”
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