This cross-sectional study examined the associations between childhood trauma, psychopathology, functional impairment, and recidivism in female juvenile offenders. The sample included 73 girls aged 12-18 who were referred to a forensic psychiatry board for criminal responsibility evaluations between February and November 2023. Data were collected using the Sociodemographic Form, the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), and the Weiss Functional Impairment Rating Scale-Self Report (WFIRS-S). Results indicated that 97.3% of participants had experienced childhood trauma, with emotional abuse (45.2%), emotional neglect (43.8%), and physical neglect (39.7%) being the most prevalent forms. Psychiatric disorders were reported in 57.5%, 43.8% engaged in self-injurious behavior, and 12.3% reported substance use. Recidivism was significantly associated with substance use (chi(2) = 9.38, p < .001), disrupted family structure (chi(2) = 7.57, p = .01), and low educational attainment (chi(2) = 5.67, p = .02). CTQ scores were positively correlated with conduct problems (r = .44), hyperactivity/inattention (r = .52), emotional symptoms (r = .57), and functional impairment (r = .59) (all ps < .01). These results underscore the high prevalence of childhood trauma among justice-involved girls and its significant associations with emotional and behavioral problems, functional impairment, and recidivism. This study provides gender-specific evidence from a court-referred female cohort in Turkey, offering practice-relevant insights for trauma-informed and gender-responsive interventions.
This study explores the harrowing experiences of a mother who was a victim of rape, leading to pregnancy, and her subsequent battle to terminate the parental rights of the rapist. It explores the profound legal, emotional, and societal challenges she faces, highlighting the inadequacies of current legal frameworks that often leave rapists with parental rights, thereby re-traumatizing victims. The research uncovers the power imbalances and systemic flaws that not only fail to protect victims and their children but also perpetuate their trauma and suffering. The study calls for urgent legal reforms, greater societal support, and the dismantling of rape myths that blame victims.
Relatively little is known about how online forums like Reddit are used to facilitate support for individuals raised by abusive parents with narcissistic tendencies. This study examined posts found in the r/raisedbynarcissists subreddit by evaluating how variables of emotional and physical abuse, neglect, and boundary-setting predicted community engagement via "upvotes." Ninety posts were coded by multiple raters and statistically analyzed. Fisher's exact test determined that mothers (52%) versus other caregiver groups were the most frequently reported perpetrators of emotional abuse. A multiple regression analysis indicated that physical neglect (beta = .29, p < .01) uniquely predicted higher upvotes. These findings offer insights into how abusive and neglectful parenting are shared and reported on a social media platform.
Childhood abuse (CA), perceived parental rejection, parental trauma-related disorders, and parental maladaptive shame coping behavior (MSCB), including avoidance, withdrawal, and attacking others or oneself, most likely render children vulnerable to shame-proneness. Aiming to understand the intergenerational transmission of shame-coping behavior, we conducted semi-structured interviews, based on internationally recognized self-report questionnaires, separately with children between ages 7 and 15 years old (50% female) and their parents (85% female; parent-child pairs n = 62). Stepwise backwards regression models revealed the importance of parental MSCB (ss = .45, p = .001) and perceived parental rejection (ss = .32, p = .006) for overall MSCB in children. Regarding specific MSCB in children, parental MSCB emerged consistently as a relevant predictor, whilst perceived parental rejection remained relevant only for avoidance and attacking others. The family environment contains significant risk factors for children's shame-proneness and may cause an intergenerational cycle of shame.
Most child neglect cases in Japan are addressed within the social welfare system rather than criminal courts. However, some fatal cases are prosecuted. This study examined 26 verdicts of fatal child neglect from a Japanese legal database, focusing on unmarried partner (UP) involvement. Nominal clustering analysis classified mothers into three groups: violence, abandonment, and contrast. Bayesian t-tests showed that mothers in the violence cluster-those who failed to prevent UP assaults-received significantly longer imprisonment terms than mothers without a UP. By contrast, the abandonment cluster did not significantly differ from the others. These findings suggest that Japanese courts impose harsher penalties on failed-to-protect (FTP) mothers, underscoring the importance of considering relational factors in sentencing and in preventive interventions.
Dissemination of evidenced-based programs to decrease the risk for maltreatment is needed within the child welfare system. The Incredible Years (IY) is an empirically supported parenting program for caregivers of children ages 3-8 that has demonstrated effectiveness in increasing positive parenting in populations placed at risk and with families involved in the child welfare system. An expansion of the original program content has been developed for parents of infants and toddlers but has not been tested with families involved in the child welfare system. This pilot study evaluated the effectiveness of the IY baby and toddler curricula among caregivers in the foster care system in a mid-sized Midwestern community. A pre- post-test design was used to examine changes in caregiver knowledge and attitudes, stress, and perceived social support (n = 43). Analysis of the entire sample found a significant increase in caregiver knowledge and appropriate attitudes from pre-to post-test, with a small effect size. When examining the baby and toddler group data separately, significant changes were found for the toddler group only. In addition to improvements in parenting knowledge and attitudes, caregivers in the toddler group showed an increase in their attitudes toward the value of alternatives to corporal punishment, with a medium effect size. Caregivers in the toddler group also showed a decrease in parenting stress. This study provided preliminary evidence for the effectiveness of the IY Toddler program in a child welfare population. When examining data from the baby group separately, significant effects were not detected.
This study examines the relationship between early childhood education, parenting, and socio-emotional outcomes among children aged 5-6 years who have experienced adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). ACEs include exposure to parental substance abuse, mental illness, violence, neglect, and single parenthood. The sample consists of 3,718 Head Start-eligible children, with 2,745 (73.8%) having no ACEs, 680 (18.2%) experiencing one ACE, and 293 (8.0%) facing two or more ACEs. Regression analysis reveals that children with a higher number of ACEs exhibit significantly lower socio-emotional skills, highlighting the negative impact of early adversity. While attending Head Start and enrolling in kindergartens with higher academic proficiency levels showed some positive effects on children's socio-emotional development, the impact was marginal. However, children whose parents engaged in positive parenting practices, particularly reading activities, demonstrated significantly better socio-emotional outcomes. Given these findings, ongoing assessment of ACEs is essential to fully understand their effects on children's socio-emotional well-being. Strengthening Head Start's trauma-sensitive strategies and promoting positive parenting practices, such as quality shared reading programs that foster emotional connection and communication, rather than focusing on reading together, along with a well-designed transition program from Head Start to kindergarten, can enhance long-term socio-emotional development and resilience among children facing adversity.
Intimate partner violence (IPV) remains one of the most widespread forms of violence against women. Prior research indicates that women who have experienced traumatic childhood experiences face an enhanced likelihood of IPV later in life, often described as revictimization. Although the occurrence of revictimization is well-documented, less is known about the mechanisms that explain how women with childhood trauma become more vulnerable to IPV victimization. The present study explored two emotional factors, shame- and guilt-proneness, that might contribute to the heightened risk for IPV. Specifically, we examined whether a tendency toward shame and guilt mediates the relationship between the five types of childhood traumatic events (i.e., physical abuse, emotional abuse, emotional neglect, sexual abuse, and physical neglect) and IPV through a multiple mediation model. The sample consisted of 594 Turkish women, aged 18 to 70 (M = 29.53; SD = 10.83), who were in a romantic relationship for a minimum of one year. Participants completed an online survey. Our findings revealed that all five forms of childhood trauma are positively related to IPV, indicating evidence for revictimization. Furthermore, shame-proneness mediated the link between emotional abuse and IPV, whereas guilt-proneness did not function as a mediator between traumatic childhood experiences and IPV. These findings suggest that shame-proneness, but not guilt-proneness, may play a role in revictimization in women with a history of emotional abuse and may be a focus for prevention and intervention efforts.
In Catalonia, child-to-parent violence is addressed through educational groups within the youth justice system. This study explores families' perceptions of the effectiveness of these groups in supporting young people's development and family dynamics. Five qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with families of boys aged 17 to 19, four months after the young men had completed their stay in the judicial resource. An inductive-deductive categorical-thematic analysis was subsequently carried out, focusing on dimensions of youth empowerment (e.g., self-esteem, responsibility). Findings suggest that families perceived limited improvement in the youths' skills, highlighting ongoing emotional instability, lack of self-criticism, weak commitment, and low community involvement. These results point to the need for an intervention model that is empowering, restorative, and inclusive in order to more effectively address child-to-parent violence.
This analysis was designed to replicate and extend original reliability findings for the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Questionnaire. Test-retest reliability assessments were conducted initially on a college sample (N = 220). The total ACE count had strong test-retest reliability (r = .91) across time intervals that ranged from 2 to 60 days. ACE abuse exposures were also stable over time (emotional abuse, kappa = .81; physical abuse, kappa = .70; sexual abuse, kappa = .83; emotional neglect, kappa = .75; physical neglect, kappa = .71; maternal battering, kappa = .65). Substantial agreement (Mk = .62) was then found in a national crowdsourcing sample (N = 2,430) between selected ACE item affirmations and maltreatment summary identifications (sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, maternal battering). Responses to the maltreatment ACE items corresponded closely with their respective dimensional indicators (sexual abuse, AUC = .87; physical abuse, AUC = .86; emotional abuse, AUC = .86; physical neglect, AUC = .78; maternal battering, AUC = .87). ACE endorsements appeared to provide reliable markers of prior abuse perpetrated at levels of severity that fall below the standard of harm applied in child protection investigations.
Unsatisfactory peer relationships are crucial predictors of internet addiction (IA) among children. However, the manner in which they bidirectional influence one another remains unclear. This study explored the mediating and moderating mechanisms of peer relationship that affect IA. Data were obtained from 65,868 fourth-grade students using four questionnaires. Results of the moderated mediation model demonstrated that peer victimization partially mediated the negative association between peer relationship and IA. The protective effect of resilience was universal across all three mediation pathways, offering particularly strong protective benefits for children in the high-resilience group. Hence, resilience can offer adequate protection for children to buffer the effects of adversities, indicating that addressing intrinsic factors may be crucial in overcoming the detrimental effects of external peer environments on their addictive behaviors.
This qualitative study explores the experiences of ten mothers and their children who faced domestic violence and temporarily resided in a safe house on a Caribbean Island. The research considers how abuse impacts both mothers and children, focusing on their resilience and efforts to reclaim autonomy. It also studies external support systems and barriers to assistance, such as employment, that survivors face. By amplifying the voices of both generations, this study offers a comprehensive understanding of domestic violence within families, addressing the socioeconomic challenges survivor's encounter. Additionally, the study emphasizes a survivor-centered approach to addressing domestic violence and examines factors contributing to survivors' successful transitions to lives free from abuse. Through interviews and narrative analysis, the study highlights the unique challenges and relational dynamics emerging from abuse, with a particular focus on the interplay between maternal protection and children's resilience. Findings suggest that therapeutic approaches can enhance resilience and empowerment for survivors, offering valuable insights into the complexities of victimization. This intrinsic case study informs future efforts to improve support structures for individuals affected by domestic violence and advocates for more compassionate and effective responses to this critical social issue.
Research has long indicated a link between child maltreatment and different forms of personality pathology. Thus far, this research has focused primarily on discrete personality disorders (PDs). This focus is contrary to a shift in PD research to a dimensional model in which personality pathology is instead conceptualized as one or more broad dimensions of problems. One such dimension is malignant self-regard (MSR), which underlies several forms of personality pathology, including depressive PD, self-defeating/masochistic PD, and vulnerable narcissism. Although there is evidence that child maltreatment is associated with each of these forms of personality pathology individually, there has yet to be research on the association between child maltreatment and MSR specifically. In this study, we address this by examining the association between different forms of child maltreatment and MSR in a non-clinical sample (N = 278) using a Bayesian approach to multiple regression. Results suggest that trauma, in general, explains a large amount of variance in MSR, with emotional abuse having the strongest relative association with MSR over and above other forms of child maltreatment and cumulative trauma exposure. Findings further show that for men (but not women), physical abuse also had a strong association with MSR. Findings shed light on the role of child maltreatment on personality pathology and may suggest the utility of a trauma-focused approach to treatment.
This study examined whether Parental Reflective Functioning (PRF) mediated the relationship between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and parent-child interaction, focusing on positive and negative parenting behaviors, while accounting for the potentially moderating role of positive childhood experiences (PCEs) on the effect of ACEs on PRF. The study included 110 parent-child dyads from clinical and non-clinical settings, observed during play sessions. Parents completed questionnaires on ACEs and PRF. Results showed that the relationship between ACEs and positive parenting behaviors was mediated by PRF. ACEs had a direct effect on negative parenting behaviors. PCEs neither predicted PRF nor interacted with ACEs. The results corroborate the value of interventions targeting parental reflective functioning to improve parental sensitivity. Negative parenting behaviors, such as intrusiveness, are less likely to be mitigated through improved reflective functioning.
