Childhood Abuse Classes for Incarcerated Men and Women: Are There Unique Gender Patterns in Abuse Classes?

Childhood maltreatment: The role of concurrent advantageous experiences on adolescents' psychosocial adjustment

Despite the growing body of evidence concerning the harmful effects of childhood maltreatment, intimate partner violence exposure (IPVE) and their correlates, little is currently known about the effects of co-occurring advantageous family conditions (e.g., instrumental support, inductive parenting, positive communication) and how they may serve to offset the detrimental effects of maltreatment and IPVE. The present study applied a three-step latent class analysis to identify the co-occurrence patterns of childhood maltreatment and advantageous family conditions among 1379 Spanish adolescents. The study also sought to identify the sociodemographic risk markers and psychosocial adjustment associated with each latent class membership. The analyses revealed four classes, namely (1) violent family context, (2) emotionally neglectful family context, (3) adverse and advantageous family conditions, and (4) positive family context. Having a lower socioeconomic status and being a migrant were both risk markers for membership to the violent family context as well as to the adverse and advantageous family conditions class. Adolescents who were exposed to advantageous family conditions (e.g., the positive family context or the adverse and advantageous family conditions) exhibited fewer psychosocial problems (e.g., depression, anxiety, somatisation) and lower frequencies of teen dating violence (TDV) when compared with those in the violent family context. Moreover, membership to the emotionally neglectful family context class was related to more psychological symptoms and a higher prevalence of TDV when compared with membership to the positive family context class, despite the absence of IPVE and maltreatment. Overall, the results provide evidence that advantageous family conditions contribute to better psychosocial adjustment on the part of adolescents even when exposed to IPV and maltreatment. Identifying the experiences that contribute to adolescents' psychosocial adjustment could help clinical and governmental interventions tailor their often-limited resources to children who are at greater risk of negative outcomes.

Is Illicit Substance Use Gender-Specific? The Basic Points of Mental and Health Disorders

Among the groups of users of illicit substances, a high percentage are persons deprived of their liberty; at the same time, each social and age group is also affected, to one degree or another. The purpose of this study is to provide general data on the relationship between different psychostimulants, clinical and socio-demographic studies, and gender, both among the general population and in one of the most at-risk groups. This review identifies the use of illicit substances as gender-specific in the general population. A detailed study of the causal relationship between the use of illicit substances and gender was carried out. Electronic databases Academic Search Complete, PubMed, HealthCare, Web of Science, and Google Scholar were searched for relevant studies up to 2022 associated with drug abuse and mental and health disorders. The analysis indicated that the human population showed significant differences between the sex of the consumer as to the type of drug consumers, development of addiction, and relapse. We focus on the pathological changes caused by drug use, the personal and physiological individual traits that influence drug choice, and the extent of use in one of the most affected groups of individuals. The study may provide some guidance in developing gender-specific treatment and prevention, including response to some pharmacological and behavioral therapies. The review is intended for a wide audience of social workers, toxicologists, and pharmacologists.