Towards a person-centered approach to the developmental psychopathology of trauma
Date
2015
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Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology
Abstract
This research highlights several important directions for future research on trauma and developmental psychopathology. Given the strong links between trauma exposure and the onset of virtually all commonly occurring forms of psychopathology, identifying the mechanisms underlying these associations is critical for prevention and intervention. In particular, there is a dearth of research examining mechanisms linking specific trauma profiles to subsequent risk for psychopathology utilizing a person-centered approach. … future research should incorporate careful measurement and examination of the differential and combined effects of adversity versus trauma exposure. Adversity encompasses a broad set of life experiences that are likely to require significant adaptation by the child and that represent a deviation from the expectable environment ranging from poverty to separation from caregivers to specific types of traumatic events, including physical abuse, sexual abuse, and other forms of violent victimization. Distinguishing between different forms of trauma and adversity is essential for identifying mechanisms linking these experiences with psychopathology. Recent conceptual models have outlined specific dimensions of adversity that are likely to have distinct influences on developmental processes that ultimately confer risk for psychopathology. For example, children exposed to physical abuse exhibit selective attention to and rapid identification of anger in others, whereas children exposed to neglect—an adversity but not a traumatic event—have greater difficulty distinguishing between different emotional expressions. Few studies within the trauma literature adequately measure co-occurring adversities in order to disentangle the unique effects of trauma exposure over and above other adverse experiences or to determine whether the presence of other adversities modifies the effects of trauma exposure on psychopathology or other developmental outcomes. (Author Text)
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Keywords
child abuse, long term effects, research
Citation
Jenness, J. L., & McLaughlin, K. A. (2015). Towards a person-centered approach to the developmental psychopathology of trauma. Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 50(8), 1219-1221.