Gendered Pathways From Child Abuse to Adult Crime Through Internalizing and Externalizing Behaviors in Childhood and Adolescence

The victimizing effect of violent socialization: Intimate partner use of coercive sexual practices transnationally

Research seems to focus more on examining predictors of sexual victimization rather than violent experiences predicting coercive sexual behaviors. Little research explores victim to offender associations. The present study expands current literature by exploring transnational differences in which coercive sexual behaviors manifest from childhood violence experiences. Do experiences of violence during childhood impact the use of coercive sexual behaviors? Multilevel modeling regression analysis, used on data from the International Dating Violence Study, reveal several interesting findings: (1) violent socialization from families is associated with coercive sexual behavior, (2) violent socialization from the community is associated with coercive sexual behavior, and (3) nations where violent socialization is more prevalent, the average level of coercive sexual behaviors tends to increase. Identifying predictive processes for sexual coercion is important. Sexual coercion may be represented in subtle day to day interactions that over time instill a sense of violence normality and further perpetuate victimization.

Pathway to terrorist behaviors: The role of childhood experiences, personality traits, and ideological motivations in a sample of Iraqi prisoners

Radicalization to terrorism is a multifaceted process with no single theory or approach to explain it. Although research has focused on understanding the process, there is still a dearth of studies that examine an empirically driven pathway to terrorism behavior. This study examines a cross-sectional sample of incarcerated men convicted of terrorism in Iraq (N = 160). A questionnaire-guided interview included adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), conduct disorder (CD), antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), religious and political ideology, views about causes of terrorism, and the severity of terrorist acts. Path analysis was employed to examine the relationships between these factors and to identify the model with the best fit. After adjusting for age, employment, and location, results indicated that ACEs positively impacted CD, ASPD, religious guidance, and terrorism attitudes. ASPD positively affected political commitment and terrorism attitudes, but inversely affected current religious commitment. Political commitment inversely influenced terrorism attitudes. Religious commitment positively influenced the prioritization of religion in life, which subsequently impacted terrorism attitudes and behavior severity. Additionally, attitudes toward terrorism directly affected the severity of terrorism behavior. All paths in the final model were statistically significant at p < 0.05. Although these findings may be limited in generalizability due to the unique sample, results support the complex and interdependent nature of childhood and adult experiences on the development of both terrorism attitudes and the severity of terrorism behavior.

Association between meeting the 24-h movement guidelines and psychosocial health in children: A cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVE

Emerging evidence suggests that meeting the 24-h movement guidelines is associated with optimal mental health. However, there remains some uncertainty regarding this association in children. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the association between meeting the 24-h movement guidelines and psychosocial health in children.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study design was employed to investigate 2005 children aged 9-12 years from four districts of Shanghai, China. The 24-h movement behaviours were assessed using selected items from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey questionnaire. Children's self-rated psychosocial health was evaluated using the Strengths or Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Generalised Linear Models with the ordinal logistic module were employed to analyse the association between meeting the 24-h movement guidelines and psychosocial health.

RESULTS

The overall prevalence of meeting all three 24-h movement recommendations was 10.2%. Among children, 7.9% of them exhibited abnormal total difficulties, with a notable difference between sex (boys: 11.2%, girls: 7.0%, p = 0.001). Meeting all three 24-h movement behaviour recommendations was associated with reduced total difficulties, emotional symptoms, conduct problems, hyperactivity and peer problems. Furthermore, a dose-response association was observed, indicating that meeting a greater number of 24-h movement behaviour recommendations was associated with enhanced psychosocial health, particularly in boys.

CONCLUSION

The findings of this study highlight the positive association between meeting the 24-h movement guidelines and psychosocial health in children. Notably, meeting more of these recommendations was associated with a lower likelihood of experiencing psychosocial problems, with greater benefits observed in boys compared with girls.

The Association Between Child Abuse and Aggressive Behavior: A Three-Level Meta-Analysis

Child abuse is considered to be an essential factor in the development of aggressive behavior. The intensity of the positive relations between child abuse and aggressive behavior differed considerably among researches despite the fact that abundant studies have observed this relation. According to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) approach, a three-level meta-analysis was employed to obtain reliable estimates for the sizes of effects and investigate some potential moderators of the relation between child abuse and aggressive behavior. The present study obtained 51 studies (30,566 participants; 680 effect sizes) through performing the detailed literature search. It was found that child abuse was positively associated with aggressive behavior in the current study. In addition, the present meta-analysis observed significant moderating effects for type of child abuse, culture, measurement of child abuse, and publication year in the association between child abuse and aggressive behavior. This study suggests that child abuse is a predictor for the development of aggressive behavior in humans. Moreover, child abuse is an important aspect for consideration in efforts toward strengthening of interventions targeting individuals' aggressive behavior.

Examining the Influence of Gender, Child Abuse, and Narcissism on Four Forms of Interpersonal Violence Among Men and Women College Students

This study examines the moderating effects of gender, child abuse, and pathological narcissism on self-reported stalking, sexual harassment, intimate partner violence, and sexual aggression in undergraduate men and women. Child abuse was positively associated with engaging in all forms of interpersonal violence for both genders. For women, pathological narcissism moderated this association such that higher levels of pathological narcissism reduced the association between child abuse and engaging in stalking, sexual harassment, sexual aggression. For men. pathological narcissism exhibited independent positive associations with engagement in sexual harassment and sexual aggression and a negative association with engagement in intimate partner violence, but no moderating effects. These gender differences have important implications for the assessment of women's violence, and university violence prevention and advocacy programs.

Psychosocial Profiles of Patients Admitted to Psychiatric Emergency Services: Results from the Signature Biobank Project

OBJECTIVES

Patients admitted to psychiatric emergency services (PES) are highly heterogenous. New tools based on a transdiagnosis approach could help attending psychiatrists in their evaluation process and treatment planning. The goals of this study were to: (1) identify profiles of symptoms based on self-reported, dimensional outcomes in psychiatric patients upon their admission to PES, (2) link these profiles to developmental variables, that is, history of childhood abuse (CA) and trajectories of externalizing behaviours (EB), and (3) test whether this link between developmental variables and profiles was moderated by sex.

METHODS

In total, 402 patients were randomly selected from the Signature Biobank, a database of measures collected from patients admitted to the emergency of a psychiatric hospital. A comparison group of 92 healthy participants was also recruited from the community. Symptoms of anxiety, depression, alcohol and drug abuse, impulsivity, and psychosis as well as CA and EB were assessed using self-reported questionnaires. Symptom profiles were identified using cluster analysis. Prediction of profile membership by sex, CA, and EB was tested using structural equation modelling.

RESULTS

Among patients, four profiles were identified: (1) low level of symptoms on all outcomes, (2) high psychotic symptoms, (3) high anxio-depressive symptoms, and (4) elevated substance abuse and high levels of symptoms on all scales. An indirect effect of CA was found through EB trajectories: patients who experienced the most severe form of CA were more likely to develop chronic EB from childhood to adulthood, which in turn predicted membership to the most severe psychopathology profile. This indirect effect was not moderated by sex.

CONCLUSION

Our results suggest that a transdiagnostic approach allows to highlight distinct clinical portraits of patients admitted to PES. Importantly, developmental factors were predictive of specific profiles. Such transdiagnostic approach is a first step towards precision medicine, which could lead to develop targeted interventions.

Do Trajectories of Sensation Seeking Vary by Sex and Child Maltreatment Subtypes?

Child maltreatment and elevated sensation seeking are associated with a wide range of negative outcomes. Longitudinal data from a study of Puerto Ricans living in two sociocultural contexts were used to determine whether child maltreatment subtypes, sex, or sociocultural context relate to trajectories of sensation seeking. Participants were 2,489 individuals from the Boricua Youth Study (48.5% girls) living in New York and in Puerto Rico (PR; 5-15 years old at Wave 1). Subtypes of child maltreatment were measured using child report on the Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scale and the Sexual Victimization Scale at Wave 1. The association between child maltreatment subtypes, sex, sociocultural context, and previously established sensation-seeking trajectories across three waves of data collection was probed using multinomial logistic regression. Girls, but not boys, who experienced neglect (adjusted odds ratio; AOR; 95% confidence interval [95% CI] = 5.33 [1.35, 21.03]), or physical abuse (AOR [95% CI] = 3.66 [1.07, 12.54]), were more likely to have an elevated sensation-seeking trajectory than a normative trajectory. For boys, none of the maltreatment subtypes were linked to the elevated sensation-seeking class. Girls exposed to verbal abuse (AOR [95% CI] = 0.33 [0.15, 0.75]) and boys exposed to physical abuse (AOR [95% CI] = 0.39 [0.16, 0.97]) were less likely to belong to the low sensation-seeking class. No significant interactions between sociocultural context (i.e., PR vs. New York) and maltreatment subtype on the development of sensation seeking were found. This research suggests sensation-seeking levels vary by experiences of childhood maltreatment, and that sex moderates the relationship between child maltreatment experiences and sensation seeking, with an association between some maltreatment subtypes and elevated sensation-seeking trajectories found in girls, but not boys. These results underline the importance of considering sex when examining how child maltreatment relates to outcomes.

The Role of Gender, Child Maltreatment, Alcohol Expectancies, and Personality Pathology on Relationship Violence Among Undergraduates

Male (n = 1,104) and female (n = 1,337) college students' self-report surveys on childhood maltreatment, alcohol expectancies, and narcissistic personality traits are examined to determine their associations with relationship violence. Intimate partner violence was measured using the violence subscales of the revised Conflict Tactics. Because we were interested in the effects of gender and because z tests of the correlations and t tests of means indicated men and women differed significantly on several variables, ordinary least squares regression models were run separately for men and women. Results suggest there are both gender similarities and differences. Relationship violence was associated with child sexual abuse for both men and women, whereas high scores on negative alcohol expectancies and vulnerable narcissism, and low scores on grandiose narcissism, were significantly associated with violence for men only. In addition, z tests revealed the regression coefficients for child sexual abuse and negative alcohol expectancies were significantly different for men and women. Child sexual abuse and alcohol expectancies had stronger associations with men's than women's violent behavior. In addition, the models explained a greater amount of variance in men's than in women's behavior. Policy implications of the research will be discussed.

Does Educational Success Mitigate the Effect of Child Maltreatment on Later Offending Patterns?

Analyses examined offending patterns during adolescence and adulthood and their relation to child maltreatment subtypes and education factors measured during adolescence and adulthood. A total of 356 participants were followed from preschool to adulthood in a prospective longitudinal study. Child maltreatment subtypes include physical-emotional abuse, sexual abuse, and neglect. Offending patterns were analyzed as latent classes of (a) chronic offending, (b) desistence, and (c) stable low-level or non-offending. Physical-emotional and sexual abuse were associated with a higher likelihood of chronic offending relative to stable low-level offending. Education variables, including high educational engagement and good academic performance, predicted a higher likelihood of low-level offending relative to desistence, but not desistence relative to chronic offending. Only educational attainment predicted desistence relative to chronic offending. There was no moderating effect of education variables on the association between child maltreatment subtypes and later offending patterns. Implications for research, practice, and policy are discussed.

Physical, Emotional, and Sexual Victimization Across Three Generations: a Cross-Sectional Study

Using data gathered from grandparents (G1), parents (G2), and young adults (G3), this study examines the continuity of intergenerational victimization (physical, emotional, and sexual) across three generations. The study included data from 168 participants within three generations: grandparents, G1 (19.2% male, 80.8% female, M = 78.13 years old); parents, G2 (25.5% male, 74.5% female, M = 50.13 years old); and young adults, G3 (40% male, 60% female, M = 21.10 years old). The data is analyzed at two levels: (1) bivariate analyses to address relationships between the variables studied by Spearman's correlations, and (2) a path model to examine the intergenerational abuse simultaneously considering all variables. Overall, path modeling showed that experienced abuse demonstrated continuity from G1 to G2 and from G2 to G3. Specifically, findings indicated that grandparents' physical and psychological victimization has a direct effect on parents' sexual and physical abuse victimization, respectively. Additionally, parents' physical victimization has a direct effect on young adults' psychological and sexual victimization, while parents' psychological victimization has a direct effect on young adults' physical and sexual victimization. These findings highlight the need for preventive interventions focused on breaking intergenerational cycles of abuse.

Early Adversity and Sexual Risk in Adolescence: Externalizing Behaviors as a Mediator

Sexual risk behavior in adolescence can result in serious health consequences that persist across the lifespan, particularly for female youth. While adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are linked to engagement in sexual risk behavior later in life, little research has examined pathways that may help explain this association. To address this gap, the present study examined whether internalizing and externalizing behaviors mediated the link between (ACEs) and sexual risk behavior in female youth. We examined data from 122 adolescent girls, ages 13-18, who were involved in the juvenile justice system or receiving social supports from local agencies and schools. Girls were asked to report their exposure to ACEs and engagement in sexual risk behavior and caregivers were asked to report on girls' internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Regression analyses indicated that girls who experienced more ACEs and exhibited more externalizing behaviors demonstrated higher rates of sexual risk. Further, externalizing behaviors partially mediated the association between ACEs and sexual risk behavior. Findings suggest that increased exposure to ACEs and higher incidence of externalizing behaviors may place girls at heightened risk for sexual risk behavior. Interventions aimed at decreasing externalizing behaviors may be particularly important in reducing sexual risk behavior among at-risk female youth.

Severity and Frequency of Antisocial Behaviors: Late Adolescence/Young Adulthood Antisocial Behavior Index

OBJECTIVES

An Antisocial Behavior index (ASB-I) for children (ages 5 to 15) was previously developed by obtaining clinician ratings of the seriousness or severity of various behaviors with the goal of improving assessment of antisocial behaviors (ASB) longitudinally. We extend the instrument for use in late adolescence/young adulthood, as socially unacceptable conduct manifests differently across developmental stages. As in the original study, this extension (the ASB-I YA) is based on independent ratings of ASB seriousness/severity during late adolescence/young adulthood (16 to 28 years) made by nine experienced clinicians.

METHODS

The items rated were drawn from the Oppositional Defiant Disorder and Conduct Disorder schedules of the NIMH Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (DISC-IV) and the Elliott Delinquency scales, plus new or modified items developmentally appropriate for late adolescence/young adulthood. Specific ratings were based on the developmental stage and reported frequency of the behaviors. The study also describes the distribution of ASB-I YA scores in the Boricua Youth Study.

RESULTS

Reliability was substantial for the average ratings of each subscale and for the total score [ICC(3,9): .88 to .95]. Certain items were rated as more severe when occurring in late adolescence/young adulthood compared to childhood/early adolescence (e.g., hitting someone on purpose); however, most ratings were similar across developmental periods. Most importantly, raters reliably and consistently rated the items describing ASB in young adulthood, allowing the computation of the ASB-I YA score.

CONCLUSIONS

Together with the ASB-I, the ASB-I YA can further advance the study of ASB progression from childhood into young adulthood.

Is there a female cycle of violence after exposure to childhood maltreatment? A meta-analysis

Several studies have demonstrated a vicious cycle of violence, in which experiences of childhood maltreatment (CM) transition into later perpetration of aggressive acts. But evidence for the presence of this cycle in adult women is mixed. The aim of this meta-analysis is to investigate the strength of associations and the mechanisms underlying a cycle of violence in women. Databases were searched for terms related to female aggression, violence, delinquency, antisocial behavior, or offending in addition to exposure to traumatic experiences, abuse, or maltreatment during childhood. Only peer-reviewed studies were included that investigated associations between any type of CM and different acts of aggression. Multi-level meta-analyses were applied, as well as meta-regressions, all based on Cohen's d. K = 34 studies were identified. The overall association between exposure to CM was in the positive but small range (Cohen's d = 0.30). There was no significant difference between specific types of abuse and/or neglect. However, associations were smaller for the perpetration of sexual aggression and violent crime compared with other acts of aggression. These findings underline the long-lasting and devastating impact of CM, including types of maltreatment that were long assumed to be less severe. Due to the limited number of available studies, interactions between types of CM and aggression could not be modeled, thus compromising their probable interacting contribution to the cycle of violence. Early interventions targeting families and women at risk are critical in order to prevent ongoing cycles of violence.

Community Gun Violence as a Social Determinant of Elementary School Achievement

The association of indirect exposure to firearm-related violence and standardized test scores among third grade elementary school children were analyzed using geospatial mapping of police department data for all gunshots in Syracuse, NY (n = 2, 127) and state standardized test scores from 2009-2015. Confirmed gunshots were geocoded and mapped across the city and neighborhood school catchment areas. Third grade standardized New York State test scores for English Language Arts (ELA) and math were coded as dichotomous variables of proficient and below proficient scores. State standardized test scores for ELA and math were found to be 50% lower in the elementary schools located within higher concentration gunshot areas, than in elementary schools in lower gunshot areas. Higher levels of gun violence within school catchment areas were significantly associated with higher rates of ELA and math failure (p ≤ .05). These findings suggest that community violence may be an important, though under recognized, social determinant of poor school performance.

Perceived parental rejection mediates the effects of previous maltreatment on emotional and behavioural outcomes in Chinese adolescents whereas mental illness has no moderating effect

Objective

This study assessed the mediating role of perceived parental rejection in the relationship between childhood maltreatment experience and behavioural problems in Chinese adolescents.

Methods

A total of 2484 adolescents (1305 males and 1179 females; aged 12–16 years) from Hunan Province, China, participated in the study. Behavioural problems, parental rejection scores and child abuse experiences were evaluated by the Child Behavior Checklist (parental version), the Memories of Parental Rearing Behavior Scale and the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, separately. Mediating effects were examined by structural equation modelling using Amos 20 software.

Results

The study found that perceived maternal rejection partially mediated the association between abuse and internalising behaviours in the male cohort, whereas perceived father’s rejection partially mediated this association in the female cohort. However, mental illness had no moderating effect on these relationships.

Conclusion

These results are consistent with the literature on maltreatment and parent-child relationships and provide empirical support for the view that emotional and behavioural problems related to perceived parental rejection underlie the development of psychosocial problems in adolescents.

Succumbing to the Call of Violence - Sex-Linked Development of Appetitive Aggression in Relation to Familial and Organized Violence

Appetitive aggression is the attraction to violent behavior, which can peak in the experience of a combat high. In various war and conflict scenarios, members of armed groups have reported developing a desire to hunt and even kill humans. More recently, we reported that the phenomenon has also been observed in female ex-combatants with varying participation in warfare. Despite recent investigations on risk factors for appetitive aggression, sex-specific pathways in the development of appetitive aggression have not yet been delineated. This study investigated moderation effects of sex on previously identified risk factors for appetitive aggression by means of regression analyses in a sample of individuals with varying degrees of warfare participation (overall sample, n = 602). First examining a sample characterized by backgrounds heterogeneous in both sociodemographic data and war experiences, the analysis was then replicated in a subsample of fighters active during the civil war (combatant sample, n = 109). In both samples, regression analyses revealed significant moderation effects of sex. Childhood maltreatment and traumatic events had positive associations on the development of appetitive aggression for males but a negative (childhood maltreatment) or no (traumatic events) association for females. Perpetrated events were more strongly correlated with appetitive aggression for females than for males. This pattern was pronounced for the combatant sample. These results are in favor of sex-linked pathways. In both sexes, appetitive aggression may have evolved as a biologically prepared response to cruel environments but might develop along different trajectories. The current study highlights the need for addressing appetitive aggression in order to support peace-building processes and emphasizes sex specific starting-points.