[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!! — Rafael Maravilla]
Researchers
Francis ER, Tsaligopoulou A, Stock SE, Pingault JB, Baldwin JR.
Subjective and objective experiences of childhood adversity: a meta-analysis of their agreement and relationships with psychopathology. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2023;64(8):1185-99. PMID: 37186463
From a research review, “we found that subjective and objective measures of childhood adversities were only moderately correlated…subjective measures of childhood adversities were associated with psychopathology, independent of objective measures. In contrast, objective measures of childhood adversities had null or minimal associations with psychopathology…Our findings suggest that the effects of childhood adversity on psychopathology are primarily driven by a person's subjective experience. If this is the case, clinical interventions targeting memories and cognitive processes surrounding childhood adversity may reduce the risk of psychopathology in exposed individuals.”
Jaen J, Lovett SM, Lajous M, Keyes KM, Stern D.
Adverse childhood experiences and adult outcomes using a causal framework perspective: Challenges and opportunities. Child Abuse Negl. 2023;143:106328. PMID: 37379730
“The estimation of the effects of ACEs measured in adulthood on adult outcomes comes with methodological challenges, including the control of confounding and possibility of selection bias. It is necessary to be very clear about the causal structure of the exposure-outcome relationship being studied, as well as the temporality of the events, since the identification of the presence of these biases and the correct choice of variables used in the analyses will depend on it. Directed acyclic graphs could be a useful tool for the identification and selection of covariates when studying the impact of ACEs on adult outcomes.”
Allen B, Pistone LF.
Psychometric evaluation of a single-item screening tool for the presence of problematic sexual behavior among preteen children. Child Abuse Negl. 2023;143:106327. PMID: 37390590
“The newly developed single-item tool appears to offer an efficient, reliable, and valid method of screening preteen children for the presence of problematic sexual behavior.” The tool asks caregivers to report whether, over the past month, the child: “Performs sexual behaviors that are concerning to me.” Possible answers are Not True, Somewhat True, Certainly True.
Sarmiento CA, Wyrwa JM, Chambliss AV, et al.
Developmental Outcomes Following Abusive Head Trauma in Infancy: A Systematic Review. The Journal of head trauma rehabilitation. 2023;38(4):283-93. PMID: 36730957
From a research review on developmental outcomes after infant abusive head trauma, authors note 115 different assessment tools were used. “Developmental outcomes after AHT have been assessed in a manner that limits understanding of how AHT impacts development, as well as the efficacy of interventions intended to improve outcomes. Researchers and clinicians are encouraged to adopt consistent diagnostic and assessment approaches.”
Dufour GK, Senn CY, Jeffrey NK.
Self-Reports of Sexual Violence Outside of Survey Reference Periods: Implications for Measurement. J Interpers Violence. 2023:8862605231182383. PMID: 37431746
“Accurate measurement of sexual violence (SV) victimization is important for informing research, policy, and service provision. Measures that use behaviorally specific language and a specified reference period (e.g., since age 14, over the past 12 months) are considered best practice…The current study explored the extent, nature, and impact on incidence estimates of reference period errors in two large, diverse samples of post-secondary students…Between 8% and 68% of rape and attempted rape victims made reference period errors, with the highest proportion of errors occurring in the survey with the shortest reference period (1 month). These errors caused minor to moderate changes in time period-specific incidence estimates.”
Graham LM, Lloyd AM, McCort AD, et al.
Researcher-Practitioner Partnerships to Implement and Evaluate Sexual and Relationship Violence Prevention Programs for Boys and Men. Violence Against Women. 2023:10778012231185545. PMID: 37501605
“Although male-focused sexual and relationship violence prevention programs are widely promulgated, limited guidance concerning how programs should be implemented for rigorous evaluation exists.” From stakeholder interviews, authors examined “(1) how programs can be designed to engage male participants; and (2) how youth-serving community organizations and educational institutions can partner with researchers for evaluations. Findings underscore the importance of attending to the unique needs of program participants, their parents/guardians, and host organizations.”
Wilbur RE, Gone JP.
Beyond resilience: A scoping review of Indigenous survivance in the health literature. Dev Psychopathol. 2023:1-15. PMID: 37496163
“Health inequity scholars, particularly those engaged with questions of structural and systemic racism, are increasingly vocal about the limitations of resilience…and who are increasingly using the term survivance…Overwhelmingly, authors employed survivance in relation to historical trauma, leading us to propose the analogy: as resilience is to trauma, so survivance is to historical trauma. There may be value in…development of a unified definition and measurement tool, ensuring comparability across studies and supporting future strengths-based Indigenous health research and practice.”
Jackson Y.
Future Directions in Child Maltreatment Research. J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol. 2023:1-10. PMID: 37383011
“Scientific interest in child maltreatment is shared across many disciplines including but not limited to social welfare, medicine, law, and biology. As a result, the current state of the field although robust, is limited by a lack of shared definitions, common approaches to research, and inclusion of widely differing sample types, making the results often nonreproducible and of limited generalizability. The goal of the current paper is to provide…a guide to the complexity of child maltreatment research and to suggest possible solutions.”
Orendain N, Anderson A, Galván A, Bookheimer S, Chung PJ.
A data-driven approach to categorizing early life adversity exposure in the ABCD Study. BMC medical research methodology. 2023;23(1):164. PMID: 37420169
“We recommend a data-driven approach to define and catalog early life adversity exposure and suggest the incorporation of more versus less data to capture the nuances of exposure, e.g., type, age of onset, frequency, duration. The broad categorizations of early life adversity exposure into two domains, such as abuse and neglect, or threat and deprivation, fail to account for the routine co-occurrence of exposures and the duality of some forms of adversity. The development and use of a data-driven definition of early life adversity exposure is a crucial step to lessening barriers to evidence-based treatments and interventions for youth.”
Sanford K, Pizzuto AE.
The Healthcare Discrimination Experience Scale: Assessing a Variable Crucial for Explaining Racial/Ethnic Inequities in Patient Activation and Health. Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities. 2023;10(4):1642-52. PMID: 35731463
“A new Healthcare Discrimination Experience Scale was developed, validated, compared to an existing scale, and used to estimate effects in explaining racial/ethnic health inequities…The new scale is valid for assessing a broadly defined healthcare discrimination experience in diverse patients with chronic medical conditions, and it is more sensitive to group differences than the best existing alternative scale.”
Other of Interest
Dreyer BP.
Achieving Child Health Equity: Policy Solutions. Pediatr Clin North Am. 2023;70(4):863-83. PMID: 37422319
“Policy solutions to address child health equity, with evidence to support the policies, are presented. Policies address health care, direct financial support to families, nutrition, support for early childhood and brain development, ending family homelessness, making housing and neighborhoods environmentally safe, gun violence prevention, LGBTQ + health equity, and protecting immigrant children and families. Federal, state, and local policies are addressed. Recommendations of the National Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine and the American Academy of Pediatrics are highlighted when appropriate.”
Ashe JJ, Baker MC, Alvarado CS, Alberti PM.
Screening for Health-Related Social Needs and Collaboration With External Partners Among US Hospitals. JAMA Netw Open. 2023 Aug 1;6(8):e2330228. PMID: 37610754
Of 2858 US hospitals surveyed, most hospitals reported screening for at least one health-related social need (HRSN), most often food insecurity and IPV. Hospitals reported a mean of 4.03 external partnership types to address social determinants of health, and 5.69 partnership types to address HRSNs. “These findings suggest that hospitals’ policy-related organizational decisions hold the promise of progress toward equitable health care delivery.”
Coker TR, Cheng TL, Ybarra M.
Addressing the Long-term Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Children and Families: A Report From the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. JAMA. 2023 Apr 4;329(13):1055-1056. PMID: 36928897
This viewpoint reviews the report on long-term effects of the pandemic on children and families, and includes recommendations to prioritize children and families; address social, emotional, and educational needs; address physical and mental health needs; address economic needs; and support future research and data needs. Report
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