Abstract
Exposure to chronic early trauma carries lasting effects on children's well-being and adaptation. Guided by models on resilience, we assessed the interplay of biological, emotional, cognitive, and relational factors in shaping two regulatory outcomes in trauma-exposed youth: emotion recognition (ER) and executive functions (EF). A unique war-exposed cohort was followed from early childhood to early adolescence. At preadolescence (11-13 years), ER and EF were assessed and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), biomarker of parasympathetic regulation, was quantified. Mother-child dyadic reciprocity, child's avoidance symptoms, and cortisol (CT) were measured in early childhood. Trauma-exposed youth displayed impaired ER and EF abilities. Conditional process analysis described two differential indirect paths leading from early trauma to regulatory outcomes. ER was mediated by avoidance symptoms in early childhood and modulated by cortisol, such that this path was evident only for preadolescents with high, but not low, CT. In comparison, EF was mediated by the degree of dyadic reciprocity experienced in early childhood and modulated by RSA, observed only among youth with lower RSA. Findings pinpoint trauma-related disruptions to key regulatory support systems in preadolescence as mediated by early-childhood relational, clinical, and physiological factors and highlight the need to specify biobehavioral precursors of resilience toward targeted early interventions.
Highlights
To specify pathways of risk and resilience, we focused on the avoidance cluster of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and on mother–child reciprocity in early childhood as precursors of regulatory outcomes
These results suggest that the effect of early exposure on later emotion recognition (ER) deficits is mediated by avoidance symptoms in early childhood, but this indirect pathway depends on CT levels
The current study examined the effects of chronic early trauma on the maturation of two regulatory functions: ER and executive functions (EF), abilities that play a key role in the individual’s well-being and social adaptation
Summary
Participants were recruited in early childhood and followed four times from early childhood to early adolescence. Childhood (T1) A total of 232 war-exposed and control children–mother dyads were initially recruited (M = 2.76 years, SD = 0.91). The war-exposed group included 148 children and mothers living in Sderot, a small Israeli town located near the Gaza border whose residents experienced frequent and unpredictable rockets and missile attacks for nearly 20 years, with periods of exacerbation occurring every few months. During these years, dozens of civilians were killed, and thousands were injured. The current study utilized data from 111 children who participated in both T1 and T4. Mothers signed an informed consent and children received a gift certificate for their participation
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