Abstract
Objective: Birthing trauma (BT) (i.e., complicated birth) is an early life complex trauma for the baby and mother that never been empirically examined or considered within the trauma field as a traumatic stressor for the newborn. The goal of current study is to examine its effects on mental health and neurocognitive functioning and explore its proliferation to other life traumas. Method: Current study utilizes a novel developmental-based trauma framework (DBTF) to empirically test assumptions about some of its negative delayed psychosocial and neurocognitive effects in ado-lescents, and the dynamics of its proliferation to other potentially dependent traumas. A commu-nity sample of 410 African American and Iraqi adolescents have been administered measures of traumas (CTS), birthing trauma, PTSD, complex PTSD (CTD), existential anxiety and WISC IV. We controlled for the numerous cumulative stressors and traumas that could potentially be playing a role. .Results: Correlations and path analyses and multigroup invariance found that BT predicted elevated symptoms of post-trauma spectrum disorders, reduced IQ scores, and increased discre-pancy IQ index. These relationships were strongly invariant across gender and cultural groups. BT directly predicted other early childhood traumas, and indirectly all other life trauma types, which support BT proliferation hypothesis. These relationships were strongly invariant across gender. Conclusion: Screening for Birthing Trauma as one of the serious early childhood trauma is impor-tant. Early intervention with BT victims to provide early psychological and educational help and prevent proliferation dynamics is important.
Highlights
Aging and birthing are objective developmental events or sequence of events that entail or project the start or end of a person’s life which are potentially stressful, sometimes traumatizing and parts of growing up sequelae
Trauma (BT) was correlated with PTSD, and its reexperiencing, arousal, and dissociation/numbness sub-scales, with complex PTSD (CTD) and its depression/anxiety/somatization as well as psychoticism/dissociation subscales, and with Anxiety Scale (AA) scale. It was negatively associated with IQ and its perceptual reasoning, working memory and processing speed sub-scales, and positively associated with discrepancy index
The current study is the first to illustrate trauma proliferation dynamics based on theory and empirical evidence using path analysis path analysis
Summary
Aging and birthing are objective developmental events or sequence of events that entail or project the start or end of a person’s life which are potentially stressful, sometimes traumatizing and parts of growing up sequelae. Rates of PTSD for the mother at 3 to 6 weeks postpartum range from 0.8% (Ford, Ayers, & Bradley, 2010) to 4.6% (Creedy et al, 2000), to 9% (Beck, Gable, Sakala, & Declercq 2011). Another 18.5% (Onoye, Goebert, Morland, Matsu, & Wright, 2009) to 30.0% of mothers (Soet et al, 2003) endorse subsyndromal posttraumatic stress symptoms during this time period (for meta-analysis, see: Grekin & O’Hara, 2014). Women who experience a difficult childbirth are at an increased likelihood of experiencing symptoms of postpartum depression, state anxiety, and perceived stress and of engaging in binge drinking (Onoye et al, 2009; Iles, Slade, & Spiby, 2011)
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