Associations of caregiver-adolescent conflict and caregiver emotional support with adolescent trauma symptoms and adjustment after sexual abuse

Abstract

BackgroundEmotional support from a caregiver is believed to be important for reducing the likelihood of adolescent trauma symptoms and adjustment problems after sexual abuse. Conflict with a caregiver, another relational dynamic, is very common during adolescence, but little is known about how it might operate in tandem with emotional support to influence adolescent trauma symptoms and adjustment after sexual abuse. ObjectiveTo better understand how caregiver emotional support and caregiver-adolescent conflict jointly contribute to adolescent trauma symptoms and adjustment after sexual abuse. Participants and settingParticipants were 477 adolescents (Mage = 13.59, SD = 1.77) and a non-offending caregiver presenting at a children's advocacy center. MethodsAdolescents completed measures of caregiver-adolescent conflict, caregiver emotional support, and their own trauma symptoms and adjustment. Caregivers completed a measure of adolescent adjustment. ResultsCaregiver-adolescent conflict and caregiver emotional support each correlated in the expected direction with adolescent trauma symptoms and adjustment (conflict correlations ranged from 0.27 to 0.38, all p values ≤.001; support correlations ranged from −0.15 to −0.21, all p values ≤.01). Regression analyses, which simultaneously considered conflict and support, indicated that conflict related to adolescent trauma symptoms and each of the measures of adolescent adjustment, whereas caregiver emotional support contributed to caregiver reports of adolescent adjustment. Caregiver-adolescent conflict did not moderate any of the relations between caregiver emotional support and adolescent trauma symptoms or adjustment. ConclusionsIn the aftermath of sexual abuse, caregiver-adolescent conflict contributes to adolescent trauma symptoms and adjustment.