Taxonomy of stressors and traumas: An update of the development-based trauma framework (DBTF): A life-course perspective on stress and trauma

ABSTRACT

COVID-19 challenged the current paradigms of traumatic stress. Although there are diagnostic taxonomies of mental disorders such as Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, the taxonomy of stressors and traumas that contribute significantly to such disorders is lacking. The current article tried to fill parts of this gap by proposing an update and refinement of the development-based taxonomy of stressors and traumas from a life-course perspective. We discussed the different trends in defining trauma and their limitations considering the recent empirical data that provided evidence for the limited predictive validity of the current posttraumatic stress disorder model and when confronting serious real-life events such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The updated taxonomy presented in this paper included preidentity (complicated birth, attachment disruptions, early childhood adversities), identity traumas (physical, personal, and social), interdependence (primary, secondary, and tertiary), and aging stressors and traumas, with the severity of stressors, is categorized on a scale from I to III. We identified 4 primary sources and pathways of these development-based stressors intrapersonal, interpersonal, systemic, and environmental. The systemic sources are further divided into systemic "A," including traumas perpetrated by groups, institutions, or governments, and systemic "B," traumas such as recessions and global warming. The environmental sources and pathways are further divided into environmental "A" (physical), traumas such as earthquakes and hurricanes, and environmental "B" (biological/pathogenic), traumas such as pandemics. The macrodynamics of accumulation and proliferation and the interaction among preidentity, identity, and postidentity stressors and traumas determine their total mental health impact from a life-course perspective. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)