Childhood Traumatic Experiences Research Articles

A Qualitative Examination of the Transition to Motherhood among Women with Histories of Childhood Trauma

Objective: This study aims to qualitatively examine the transition to motherhood among women with histories of childhood trauma, exploring how their past experiences influence their journey into motherhood, the challenges they face, and the coping mechanisms they employ. Methods and Materials: A qualitative research design was employed, utilizing semi-structured interviews to collect data from 33 women who have experienced childhood trauma and are either pregnant or have recently become mothers. Data collection continued until theoretical saturation was reached. The interviews were transcribed verbatim, and thematic analysis was used to identify key themes and concepts within the data. Findings: Six main themes emerged from the analysis: Emotional Transition, Support Systems, Coping Mechanisms, Perceptions of Motherhood, Impact of Trauma, and Future Orientations. These themes encompassed various categories and concepts, such as anticipatory emotions, bonding experiences, partner support, self-care strategies, the impact of trauma on parenting, and aspirations for their children's futures. The study highlights the complex interplay between childhood trauma and motherhood, underscoring the emotional challenges, the critical role of support systems, and the resilience displayed by the participants. Conclusion: The transition to motherhood for women with histories of childhood trauma is deeply affected by their past experiences, presenting unique challenges that impact their emotional well-being, parenting practices, and perceptions of motherhood. Despite these challenges, the study reveals the strength and resilience of these women, as well as the importance of targeted support and interventions to facilitate a positive transition to motherhood.

Prevalence of childhood trauma in patients with psychiatric disorders and its association with perceived social support and suicide attempts: A cross-sectional observational study in a tertiary hospital in South India

Background: Adverse childhood experiences include exposure of children to physical abuse, physical neglect, emotional neglect, emotional abuse, and sexual abuse. Children exposed to severe maltreatment and trauma during their early childhood are at a higher risk of early onset of psychiatric disorders. Aim: To find the prevalence of childhood adverse experiences in psychiatric patients and its association with perceived social support and suicidal attempts. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional observational study was conducted in the psychiatry outpatient department at a tertiary care hospital in Kerala. Patients with a diagnosis of substance use disorders, psychotic disorders, mood disorders, and neurotic disorders according to ICD-10 (F10-F45) and in remission were included in the study. Institutional Ethical Committee approval and informed consent from the participants were obtained. Socio-demographic and clinical details were obtained. Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form and Multidimensional scale of Perceived Social Support were administered. Descriptive statistics and Chi-square test were employed for data analysis. Results: Eighty-five per cent of the subjects had a history of at least one type of childhood trauma. Emotional abuse was the most commonly reported type of trauma. Among patients with childhood trauma, 47.2% reported high levels of perceived social support, whereas 18.5% individuals reported a history of at least one suicide attempt. Conclusions: A significant proportion of patients with psychiatric disorders in an Indian setting have experienced childhood trauma. Childhood trauma in psychiatric disorders is associated with a higher risk of attempting suicide.

Prevalence of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) among Married Individuals at Presbyterian Church of East Africa (P.C.E.A), Nairobi North Presbytery, Kenya.

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) involve a wide range of childhood traumatic events such as emotional, sexual and physical abuses. The detrimental effects of ACEs on adulthood have received increasing attention recently, which has been found to be significantly associated with increased risks of mental disorders and quality of relationship. Therefore, this present study aims at estimating the proportion of ACEs among the married individuals attending the Presbyterian church of East Africa (P.C.E.A), known as the Nairobi North Presbytery. This study utilized a cross-sectional research design, using a quantitative research approach to collect data from 288 married individuals sampled from 14,400 married couples across 17 parishes using Cochran (1963) formula. The total of 288 married individuals’ both male (N=150, 52.1%) and female (N= 138, 47.9%) with age ranges from 20 years to 75 years old with the mean age 45.9 ± (SD: 12.235) were sampled and screened to participate in the study. The ACE International Questionnaire (ACE-IQ) is a 43-item scale which was developed according to model of ACEs by World Health Organization (2009) was used to assess childhood experiences of the participants. Results from the study showed the general prevalence of ACEs, that is the proportion of the respondents who experienced at least four or more childhood experiences at 90.6%. Also, the frequency of multiple exposure to ACEs was higher among the respondents aged 41-65 years at 54.9%, among the male respondents at 47.9%, and among the married individuals at 73.3%. Also, this study found the top three highest proportion of childhood traumatic experiences among the participants, which are community violence (91%), emotional neglect (83%), and violence against household members (79.9%). This study therefore recommended that churches in Kenya particular, and worldwide in general may consider engaging the services of clinical psychologists to help in screening married individuals for ACEs and to ensure access to mental health services for children and families, including early intervention and trauma-informed care.

Exploring Overlooked Anxiety Disorders: A Study on the Prevalence of Adult Separation Anxiety Disorder and Specific Phobia in the General Population

Objective: The current study aimed to investigate the prevalence of adult separation anxiety disorder and specific phobia in the general population, along with identifying the factors associated with these two disorders. Material and Method: The study was carried out in the Selçuklu district, encompassing 28 of the 34 family health centers selected through a simple random sampling method. The study sample included 1,218 individuals over 18, chosen using a systematic sampling approach by skipping one resident from each neighborhood covered by the family health unit. After collecting the sociodemographic data, face-to-face diagnostic interviews were performed using the Structured Clinical Interviews for Separation Anxiety Symptoms (SCI-SAS) for ASAD and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-5 (SCID-5) for specific phobia assessment. Results: The study revealed that the lifetime prevalence of ASAD was 5.9%, with a point prevalence of 1.5%, while the lifetime prevalence of specific phobia was 11.3%. The application rates for the treatment of both disorders were very low and clinicians demonstrated limited recognition of ASAD. ASAD was correlated with female gender, low income, childhood traumatic experiences, migraine presence, and family history of serious illness. On the other hand, specific phobia was associated with female gender and family history of psychiatric disease. Conclusion: Despite the high prevalence of both disorders, the alarming rates of clinical recognition and treatment underscore the need to develop health policies and awareness programs aimed at promoting early diagnosis and treatment.

Personality organisation, traumatic childhood experiences, and alcohol use in a non-clinical group

Introduction and objective: Psychodynamic concepts assume that early experiences in relationships with close family members influence mental health. Kernberg’s model of personality organisation also assumes that the structure of personality depends on object relations, and the adaptability of individual dimensions of personality organisation will depend on, among others, quality of care in early childhood. In recent years, the self-medication hypothesis has become increasingly popular, arguing that alcohol use is secondary to personality difficulties. The research presented in the article aimed to assess the relationships between dimensions of personality organisation, traumatic childhood experiences, and alcohol use. Materials and methods: The sample consisted of 148 Polish adults, including 85 women and 63 men. The mean age was M = 32.61 (standard deviation, SD = 9.29). The Inventory of Personality Organization, the Childhood Experience Questionnaire (CEQ-58), and the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT) were used. Results: The results indicate positive low to moderate correlations between all personality dimensions and the severity of various adverse experiences. Alcohol use also increases with greater disturbances across all dimensions of personality organisation. Moreover, as traumatic experiences such as physical abuse, physical and emotional neglect, and environmental instability increase, the tendency to use alcohol also increases. Three clusters of individuals with different configurations of the investigated variables were also identified. Conclusions: The research has confirmed the relationships between personality organisation, traumatic childhood experiences, and alcohol use reported in the literature, thus prompting reflection on the use of alcohol as a form of self-medication.

Investigation of the Relationship Between Childhood Trauma Experiences and Future Expectations of Adolescents

The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between childhood traumas experienced by adolescents and their future expectations. The sample comprised 408 high school students, with 212 girls and 196 boys. The researchers employed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire Short Form (CTQ-SF) to assess participants' childhood trauma, the Future Expectations Scale for Adolescents (FESA) to measure their future expectations, and a researcher-developed Personal Information Form to collect demographic data. The study findings revealed a significant negative correlation between adolescents' childhood trauma experiences and their future expectations. Regression results show that physical neglect and emotional abuse account for 18% of the variance in future expectations. Considering the results, recommendations were made to researchers and practitioners.

Behavioral and inflammatory changes in rats induced by a three-hit stress model: Implications for psychiatric disorders

Many aspects of the impact of childhood trauma remain unknown, such as the age at which individuals are most vulnerable to trauma, whether traumatic experiences have more severe and lasting effects when experienced early in life, and whether early life trauma causes psychiatric conditions such as anxiety and major depressive disorder (MDD) that persist over time or evolve into other disorders. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the impact of traumatic experiences in childhood on susceptibility to mood disorders in adulthood, particularly MDD. Animal models were used to address these questions, and different stressor protocols at various stages of the offspring's life were used. Three-hit starting with injections of Poly: IC was performed on the 9th day of gestation and then considered the first stressor. After birth, the animals were exposed to the maternal deprivation (MD) protocol, which separated the pups from the mother 3 h a day during the first ten days of life. From the 60th day of life, the animals were divided to receive the chronic mild stress (CMS) protocol over 21 days. The stressors can induce anxiety-like behaviors, such as increased locomotor activity through a maternal immune activation protocol using Poly: IC and demonstrating depressive-like behaviors through the MD and CMS protocols. It also showed changes in brain structures for pro-inflammatory parameters, IL-1β and TNF-α, and alterations in anti-inflammatory parameters, IL-4 and IL-10, at different ages of life. The study also found that regulating pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines is necessary for appropriate neuronal behavior, and stress responses can be both friendly and enemy, with costs and benefits balanced to provide the best-fit result. In conclusion, phenotypic characteristics of animals' life history are shaped by signals transmitted directly or indirectly to developing animals, known as “predictive adaptive responses."

Clinical characteristics of psychotic disorders in patients with childhood trauma.

Childhood trauma is an important predictor of psychotic disorders, with special emphasis on physical and sexual abuse. It influences the clinical picture and course of psychotic disorders. This study was conducted in the Department of Psychiatry of the University Clinical Hospital Mostar. The sample consisted of 135 participants, aged 18 to 65 years. The screening instrument to examine cognitive status was the short version of MMSE-2. Patients' background information was collected using a sociodemographic questionnaire constructed for this study. To determine childhood trauma, the Child Abuse Experience Inventory was used to examine physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, neglect and domestic violence. The positive and negative syndrome scale scale was used to evaluate the clinical profile of psychoticism, the SSI questionnaire was used to evaluate the severity of suicidality, and the functionality of the participants was evaluated using the WHODAS 2.0. Results indicate that a significant number of participants with psychotic disorders experienced childhood trauma, an important determinant of their illness. Participants who had witnessed abuse had more severe clinical presentations (earlier onset and longer duration of illness) and more pronounced psychotic symptomatology and a lower degree of functionality. Decreased functionality is associated with witnessing abuse and physical abuse. During the civil war, a significant percentage of the participants were in childhood and adolescent development (26.7%) and exposed to frequent emotional abuse and domestic violence. As 1 traumatic event in childhood makes a person more susceptible to more traumatic experiences during life. Childhood trauma is a serious and pervasive problem that has a significant impact on the development, course, and severity of the clinical presentation of psychotic disorders. Accordingly, it is necessary to provide continuous education to mental health workers, primarily psychiatrists, regarding childhood trauma so that treatment may be approached more systematically and a plan of therapeutic interventions may be more adequately designed, which would necessarily include psychosocial support in addition to pharmacotherapy.

Different epistemic stances for different traumatic experiences: implications for mentalization.

Traumatic experiences may impair reflective functioning (RF), making it difficult for individuals to understand their own and others' mental states. Epistemic trust (ET), which enables evaluating social information as reliable and relevant, may vary in association with RF. In this study, we explored the implications of different ET stances (i.e., trust, mistrust, and credulity) in the relation between different childhood traumatic experiences (i.e., emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional neglect, and physical neglect) and different types of RF impairments (uncertainty and certainty about mental states). A non-clinical community sample of 496 cisgender emerging adults (mage = 24.91, standard deviation = 2.66, 71.85% assigned female at birth, 63.63% heterosexual) reported on their childhood traumatic experiences, ET, and RF. We used structural equation models to examine direct and indirect associations. The results showed significant indirect effects between emotional abuse and uncertainty about mental states through credibility. We also observed significant indirect effects between emotional abuse and certainty about mental states through mistrust and credibility. The findings suggest that a lack of discrimination when evaluating knowledge from others (i.e., credulity) might promote increased uncertainty in RF when emerging adults have experienced emotional abuse in their childhood. Conversely, a tendency to view all information sources as unreliable or ill-intentioned (i.e., mistrust) may foster greater certainty in RF as a protective mechanism against an unreliable and potentially harmful world when combined with childhood emotional abuse. The implications for clinical practice and intervention are discussed.

Founder's birth order and triple bottom line in B2B SMEs

Leveraging upper-echelon and post-traumatic childhood experience theories, this study analyses the influence of CEOs' birth order in the family on firms' triple bottom line management. Conducting our study in the B2B market and SME context during the COVID-19 pandemic, we assert that the eldest sibling tends to adopt more prosocial behavior than younger siblings. When first-born individuals become entrepreneurs, their values get reflected in the firm's organizational culture and the strategic choices they make as CEOs. We further suggest a mediating mechanism of a sustainable marketing orientation for sibling birth order and triple bottom line management and a moderating role of CEO childhood trauma experience. Childhood trauma experience moderates the mediating effect of sustainable marketing orientation, i.e., a moderated mediating mechanism. Heeding calls for research in marketing to become more interdisciplinary, we leverage the family science and upper echelon theories to expand the B2B marketing literature.

Interaction between childhood trauma experience and TPH2 rs7305115 gene polymorphism in brain gray matter volume

BackgroundChildhood trauma is one of the most extensively studied and well-supported environmental risk factors for the development of mental health problems. The human tryptophan hydroxylase 2 (TPH2) gene is one of the most promising candidate genes in numerous psychiatric disorders. However, it is now widely acknowledged that neither genetic variation nor environmental exposure alone can fully explain all the phenotypic variance observed in psychiatric disorders. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the interaction between the two factors in psychiatric research.MethodsWe enrolled a sizable nonclinical cohort of 786 young, healthy adults who underwent structural MRI scans and completed genotyping, the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) and behavioural scores. We identified the interaction between childhood trauma and the TPH2 rs7305115 gene polymorphism in the gray matter volume (GMV) of specific brain subregions and the behaviour in our sample using a multiple linear regression framework. We utilized mediation effect analysis to identify environment /gene-brain-behaviour relationships.ResultsWe found that childhood trauma and TPH2 rs7305115 interacted in both behaviour and the GMV of brain subregions. Our findings indicated that the GMV of the right posterior parietal thalamus served as a significant mediator supporting relationship between childhood trauma (measured by CTQ score) and anxiety scores in our study population, and the process was partly modulated by the TPH2 rs7305115 gene polymorphism. Moreover, we found only a main effect of childhood trauma in the GMV of the right parahippocampal gyrus area, supporting the relationship between childhood trauma and anxiety scores as a significant mediator.ConclusionsOur findings suggest that early-life trauma may have a specific and long-term structural effect on brain GMV, potentially leading to altered cognitive and emotional processes involving the parahippocampal gyrus and thalamus that may also be modulated by the TPH2 gene polymorphism. This finding highlights the importance of considering genetic factors when examining the impact of early-life experiences on brain structure and function. Gene‒environment studies can be regarded as a powerful objective supplement for targeted therapy, early diagnosis and treatment evaluation in the future.

The Impact of Childhood Trauma on Sensory Processing and Connected Motor Planning and Skills: A Scoping Review

BackgroundTraumatic experiences during childhood have been suggested to alter the course of sensory and motor development due to the impact on neural connections within the brain at integral periods. This connection has been alluded to in literature and is discussed anecdotally by practitioners suggesting the impact is commonly seen in practice. Previous scoping reviews in this area have focused solely on the process of sensory modulation without exploring the connection to motor planning.ObjectiveThis scoping review considers what is known from the existing literature about the impact of childhood trauma on sensory processing and motor skills.MethodThis scoping review followed the JBI methodology for scoping reviews (Peters et al., 2020), searching CINAHL plus, Proquest, Scopus, PsycINFO, EThOS, as well as a search of the reference lists of the articles and citation chaining, to locate both published and unpublished sources. Articles were reviewed by two reviewers independently, with a third reviewer verifying those that met inclusion criteria where there was disagreement.ResultsSix articles were identified that met the inclusion criteria for the study. While all included studies suggested the concurrence of sensory processing and motor difficulties in individuals who have experienced childhood trauma they did not conclusively make the link between the two suggesting an overall low level of evidence. Commonalities were identified in relation to the areas of the brain impacted and the nature of difficulties experienced with some suggestion of this varying according to stage of development and the specific nature of the trauma.ConclusionsThis study suggests emerging evidence in relation to the connection between trauma, sensory processing and motor development but that further empirical research is needed to verify this and inform practice.

ACEs and social risk factors in patients with opioid use disorder

ABSTRACT Background Individuals who experience childhood trauma may be more likely to misuse substances. The influence of social risk factors increases the frequency of opioid use. Understanding the linkages between childhood trauma, opioid use disorder, and social risk factors has the potential of improving poor health outcomes. The performance of specific role groups on office-based addition teams in documenting social risk factors in the electronic medical record had not been studied. Methods This retrospective chart review was conducted across three primary care practices at an urban academic medical center. Results The majority of our sample reported at least one social risk factor. Those patients with an advanced practice nurse and/or navigator on their team were more likely to report food insecurity and to have documentation related to involvement with the legal system. Recovery coaches were most likely to document the lack of housing stability as compared to other members of the team. Conclusions The incidence of documentation related to housing stability, food insecurity, and involvement with the legal system for patient’s engaged in an OBAT program should alert interprofessional clinicians on the team to assess for a history of adverse childhood experiences.

Peculiarities of the formation of early attachment models in children with traumatic experiences

This article presents the results of a meta-analysis of relevant studies published in English literature between 2010 and 2022, focusing on the definition of traumatic experience, types of psychological trauma, early attachment models, and the concept of mentalization. The search services PsycInfo, PubMed, APA Web-of-Science, and Research Gate were used to accomplish the set objectives. The influence of childhood traumatic events on the development of primary attachment models was explored. It was established that early attachment models are internal representations or perceptions formed during childhood, that determine a child’s perception of close individuals and their relationships. The effectiveness and scientifically substantiated aspects of the Neurosequential Model in Education and the Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics (NMT) in working with children who have experienced traumatic events are described. It was found that childhood traumatic experience affects seven main aspects of psychology: sensory development, dissociation (changes in consciousness), attachment, affect regulation, behavioral regulation, cognitive domain, self-awareness, and identity development. Each type of traumatic experience has its conditions, characteristics, mechanisms, and consequences for the formation of early attachment models in children and overall psychosocial functioning. Thus, understanding the entire spectrum of changes, including neurobiological aspects, is crucial when working with children who have experienced traumatic events and require specialized support. This analysis revealed that the quality of parent-child interaction depends on parents' ability to mentalize and their capacity to understand the child‘s inner world, which, in turn, influences the formation of early childhood attachment models. Depending on the presence or absence of traumatic experiences in a child's life, different attachment styles can be developed. The identified generalizations shed light on the pathogenesis of relationship trauma-related disorders and can be practically applied in the development and implementation of professional recommendations or programs for psychosocial support for children who have experienced traumatic events. Emphasizing the necessity for further empirical research to gain a more detailed understanding of this issue.

Religious Attendance, Childhood Trauma, and Later Life Depressive Symptoms

AbstractBackgroundOlder adults who experienced childhood trauma are at higher risk of developing depression. Depression is linked with structural changes in the brain and alterations in neurotransmitters and inflammation, placing individuals with depression at 2 times as likely to develop dementia than individuals without depression. A growing body of literature supports religion and spirituality as protective factors for mental health, yet few studies have examined the mediating role of religious attendance on the association between childhood trauma and depressive symptoms in later life. Identifying modifiable protective factors to decrease depression and, potentially, dementia is needed to decrease the growing dementia burden.MethodWe analyzed data from the Health and Retirement Study in 2006‐2012 to examine the mediating role of religious attendance (in 2010) on the association of childhood trauma (in 2008) with later‐life depressive symptoms (in 2012) among older adults in the U.S. (N = 3,240) aged 60 years and older. A mediation analysis was conducted while controlling for covariates: sex, race, education, age, marital status, body mass index (BMI), and cognition.ResultAged 60‐104 years, participants had a mean age of 72.7 (8.45) years, were 57.9% female, and were 82.9% White. A significant association was found for childhood trauma using 4 self‐report items and self‐reported depressive symptoms using the Center for Epidemiological Studies‐Depression scale (CES‐D) (β = 0.2124, 95% CI [0.31, 0.1201], p<.001). There was a partial mediating effect of self‐reported religious attendance (high vs. low) between childhood trauma and depressive symptoms (β = 0.017, 95% CI [0.03, 0.003], p<.05) adjusting for sex, race, education, age, marital status, BMI, and cognition.ConclusionReligious attendance plays a partial mediating role in the relationship between childhood trauma and later‐life depressive symptoms in older adults. Clinical trials are needed to further examine the effect of religious attendance on depressive symptoms in older adults with a history of childhood trauma, with the potential to decrease the risk of dementia.

아동기에 겪은 트라우마 증상 대처 경험에 대한 근거이론적 탐구

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of coping with symptoms caused by childhood trauma and identify the factors that facilitate effective coping. Accordingly, two research questions were formulated. First, how do individuals who have experienced childhood trauma cope with the symptoms? Second, what factors contribute to coping with symptoms resulting from childhood trauma?
 Methods: To address these questions, the study employed a grounded theory research method and recruited participants using the theoretical sampling method. Six participants were selected, who had experienced trauma events before the age of eighteen, and they agreed to participate in the study. In-depth interviews were conducted, with one session per participant and additional interviews with three participants.
 Results: The primary data were open-coded, resulting in 113 concepts, thirty subcategories, and sixteen categories. Through axial and selective coding, the core category “the power to live the present life is more pronounced when individuals who have experienced childhood trauma are in an understanding environment” was derived.
 Conclusion: The significance of this study is as follows. First, it emphasizes the vulnerability of children to trauma events and the need for sensitivity from caregivers and adults in their surroundings. Second, it demonstrates that an understanding of trauma by individuals surrounding the child is helpfulin coping with trauma symptoms. Thus, this study highlights the necessity of understanding children'strauma and the importance of individuals in the child’s environment, including schools being sensitiveto trauma.

The relationship between attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and criminal behavior: a psychological profile of convicts serving custodial sentences. Pilot studies

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is a disorder whose symptoms are mostly observed in childhood, however, their intensity may also persist into adulthood. What is more, research shows that the very nature of this disorder’s symptoms is such that adults experience numerous secondary consequences of the disorder. The purpose of the described pilot studies was to determine the connection between hyperactivity disorder and criminal behaviour as well as between hyperactivity disorder and mental functioning understood as the experience of trauma, maladaptive emotional schemas and mental health. Two groups of convicts participated in the research: first offenders and recidivists in prison aged from 21 to 65. Each group consists of 20 people (40 in total). Participants in the study were recruited from semi-open prisons in Poland (Detention Centre in Poznań, Iława Prison). The control group consisted of men without a criminal record aged from 21 to 65 – 20 men in total. The DIVA 5.0 questionnaire was used in order to recognise the intensity of ADHD symptoms. Other questionnaires used in the study were the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Scale IV (FACES-IV), Young Schema Questionnaire (YSQ) and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-30). The results of pilot studies demonstrate that ADHD materially correlates with the experience of early childhood trauma. ADHD intensity also correlates with the evaluation of family functioning – these people evaluated relationships in their families of origin more negatively than the control group. Finally, ADHD intensity correlates with the disclosure of maladaptive emotional schemas. Research results did not demonstrate a connection between the intensity of ADHD symptoms and the tendency to get into conflicts with the law.The conducted research is innovative in nature as it attempts to provide a multifactorial approach to relationship between ADHD and criminal behavior.

Associations between abnormal electroencephalogram microstates and childhood emotional abuse in adolescent depression.

Childhood traumatic experiences greatly influenced the brain network activities of patients with depression, and there is an urgent need to explore the temporal dynamics for these changes. This study aims to investigate the abnormalities of resting-state electroencephalogram (EEG) microstates in eye-open state of depressed adolescents and to explore the correlations between their EEG microstates and the childhood traumatic experience. Using resting-state EEG microstate analysis, we explored the temporal dynamics of brain activity in patients with adolescent depression. This study selected 66 adolescents with depression as a patient group, and 27 healthy adolescents as a healthy control group. A modified k-means clustering algorithm was used to classify the 64-channel resting-state EEG data into different microstates. Independent sample t-tests were used to compare the microstate parameters between the 2 groups and further assciations between these parameters and childhood traumatic experience in patients were explored via using Spearman correlation. In this study, significant differences were observed in the occurrence and transition probabilities of EEG microstates between the healthy control and the patient group. Notably, there was a statistically significant difference (P<0.05) in the occurrence of microstate A across 2 groups, exhibiting a negative correlation with the emotional abuse component within the childhood trauma scores (Spearman's rho=-0.31, P=0.013). Furthermore, patient-specific, non-random transitions from microstate B to A (Spearman's rho=-0.30, P=0.015) and C to A (Spearman's rho=-0.31, P=0.013) were inversely associated with the scores of emotional abuse factors from childhood trauma in the patient group, showing statistically significant differences when comparing to the healthy controls (P<0.05). Upon stratification into quartiles based on the emotional abuse factor scores, the occurrence of microstate A, as well as the transition rates from microstates B to A and C to A, retained statistical significance following adjustment for multiple comparisons (all P<0.05). The abnormal temporal dynamics in brain networks of adolescents with depression are linked to childhood emotional abuse. Those who have suffered severe emotional abuse may show greater impairments in the brain's visual and central executive networks. EEG microstate analysis could be a potential tool for detecting adolescent depression with severe childhood trauma.

Drug Dependency Due to Traumatic Childhood Experiences and Low Emotional Intelligence of Juvenile Felons in India

ABSTRACT Children involved with the juvenile justice system for engaging in unlawful acts are more likely than their peers of the same age to use cannabis and alcohol, which increases the likelihood of adverse behavioral outcomes and prolonged involvement with the judicial system. This study focuses on the relationship between child maltreatment, emotional intelligence and drug dependence among children in conflict with the law. The participants of the study are 130 justice-involved male juveniles in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu who are given the Alcohol, Smoking, and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST), the Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire (JVQ), and Emotional Intelligence Scale (EIS) for assessment. Interviews are conducted to obtain the data required for the study. For the statistical analysis, frequency, t-test, correlation, and regression analyses are used. Results of the study indicates that low level/lack of emotional intelligence which enhances the likelihood of juveniles being in conflict with the law and engaging in harmful, drug-dependent behavior. No significant relationship is observed between child maltreatment and drug-dependent behavior. For these juveniles, marijuana serves as the gateway drug. Peer influence and school dropout have a substantial influence on drug-dependent behavior.

Start Early: Providing Trauma-Informed, Systems-Focused Professional Development in Early Childhood Development and Learning Contexts

Adverse and traumatic childhood experiences can have profound negative health and mental health consequences across the lifespan. Prevention and early intervention strategies to mitigate such impacts and foster resilience are essential, yet extant approaches often do not consider the systemic nature of trauma exposure, particularly among communities most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and historic disinvestment. Addressing the impacts of trauma early in life is critical in order to mitigate their long-term effects on child development. The current project worked with a community Head Start/Early Head Start partner to adapt, deliver, and conduct a formative evaluation of Trauma-Informed Programs and Practices in Schools-Early Childhood (TIPPS-EC), a systems-focused professional development approach to creating and maintaining trauma-informed early childhood development and learning contexts serving children ages 0-5 years and their families. Training materials were designed to highlight community and systemic sources of trauma exposures; acknowledge teacher stress and burnout; and present research-based information on trauma exposure, how effects may manifest, and the impacts of trauma exposures on very young children and the adults in their lives. Data were collected to evaluate participants' responses to TIPPS-EC and solicit their input regarding implementing systems-focused, trauma-informed approaches in EC settings (n = 56 Head Start/Early Head Start professionals). Participants were satisfied with TIPPS-EC and endorsed greater knowledge of trauma-informed approaches and systemic trauma after the professional development sessions. Participants made multiple suggestions for next steps for implementing systemic approaches in EC settings. TIPPS-EC presents a framework for understanding systemic trauma exposures as they manifest in EC contexts, and for identifying systems-level strategies that can support EC professionals to help mitigate the impacts of trauma on the children and families they serve. Implications for addressing stress, burnout, and trauma impacts specifically in EC educational settings are discussed.