Effects Of Childhood Adversity Research Articles

Effects of Childhood Adversity on Bullying and Cruelty to Animals in the United States: Findings From a National Sample

Effects of Childhood Adversity on Bullying and Cruelty to Animals in the United States: Findings From a National Sample

Childhood adversity and adult psychiatric disorder in the US National Comorbidity Survey.

Survey data are presented on the associations between retrospectively reported childhood adversities and subsequent onset and persistence of DSM-III-R disorders. Data come from the US National Comorbidity Survey, a large survey of the US household population. Twenty-six adversities were considered, including loss events (e.g. parental divorce), parental psychopathologies (e.g. maternal depression), interpersonal traumas (e.g. rape) and other adversities (e.g. natural disaster). These adversities were consistently associated with onset, but not persistence, of DSM-III-R mood disorders, anxiety disorders, addictive disorders and acting out disorders. Most bivariate associations with onset attenuated in models that controlled for clustering of adversities and for lifetime co-morbidities among psychiatric disorders. Multivariate effects of adversities in logistic models were additive, which means that they have multiplicative effects on probability of disorder onset. Adversities showed little specificity. An analysis of time decay showed that the effects of childhood adversities on disorder onset persist beyond childhood. The existence of strong clustering among childhood adversities and lifetime co-morbidity among adult disorders means that caution is needed in interpreting the results of previous single-adversity single-disorder studies as documenting unique effects of specific childhood adversities on specific adult disorders. Future studies need to assess a broader range of adversities and disorders and to explore the existence and effects of commonly occurring adversity clusters. Replication is needed to verify that the effects of childhood adversities are mostly on first onset rather than on the creation of vulnerabilities that lead to increased risk of persistence.

The Relationship Among Childhood Sexual Abuse, Parental Alcoholism, Family Environment and Suicidal Behavior in Female College Students

This study investigated the relationship among childhood sexual abuse and parental alcoholism, retroscpective reports of family functioning, and having had a history of either suicidal ideation or suicide attempts. Subjects were drawn from a sample of undergraduate college women. Results demonstrated that the experiences of childhood sexual abuse and parental alcoholism independetly predicted higher levels of suicidality. In addition, subjects' reports of past family conflict were associated with higher levels of suicidality, whereas reports that families were cohesive, fostered expressiveness and indpendence, engaged in intellectual-cultural recreational opportunities, and emphasized moral-religous values were associated with decreased risk. Regression models were found useful in describing the joint effects of childhood adversity and family environment.