A Network Analysis Approach to Understanding the Relationship Between Childhood Trauma and Wellbeing Later in Life.

Though childhood maltreatment negatively affects later in life functioning, current interventions do little to mitigate this impact. This ineffectiveness may be exacerbated by deficit-focused models which focus primarily on mental illness, ignoring other indicators of healthy functioning. This paper presents two studies that examine the relationships between childhood maltreatment and later in life functioning, including indicators of mental illness and mental health. In Study 1, network analysis was used as an exploratory tool to examine how childhood maltreatment relates to later in life wellbeing. Study 2 used a different sample of adults to provide a confirmatory test of the network obtained in Study 1 given remaining concerns about the replicability of networks from network analysis. Study 1 included a subset of participants from the Midlife Development in the United States Study 2 (MIDUS 2) Biomarker Project 4, 2004-2009. Study 2 included individuals from the MIDUS Refresher Biomarker Project 4, 2012-2016. Network comparison tests demonstrated that the networks generally replicated as they did not significantly vary in structure, global strength, or measures of strength centrality. In both studies, emotional forms of maltreatment (i.e., emotional abuse, emotional neglect) emerged as particularly influential in the networks. Childhood maltreatment impacts the ability to thrive in adulthood, beyond its impact on diagnosable mental illness, and also affects positive functioning. A stronger focus on emotional abuse and emotional neglect is warranted within maltreatment intervention and education initiatives, as is an emphasis on the impact of maltreatment on positive functioning in adulthood.

The longitudinal development of posttraumatic growth among U.S. adult burn injury survivors.

PURPOSE: Posttraumatic growth is the phenomenon of positive change resulting from coping with challenging or traumatic events. This study examines posttraumatic growth (PTG) in adult burn injury survivors via growth trajectories and correlates across time. RESEARCH METHOD: Three-hundred forty-eight burn injury survivors aged 19-86 years old completed a self-report measure of posttraumatic growth at 6, 12, and 24 months. An unconditional and conditional growth curve model with predictors were fitted to the posttraumatic growth data. Predictors included psychosocial variables (satisfaction with life, stigma, body image, anxiety, depression, and pain), demographic variables (age, education, sex), and burn injury variables (days hospitalized, cause of injury, TBSA burn, and admittance to rehab). RESULTS: On average participants experienced midlevel posttraumatic growth scores and experienced little change across time. Participants' sex, age, educational attainment, burn severity level, satisfaction with life pre-burn injury, and perceived stigma were each significantly associated with initial posttraumatic growth scores. CONCLUSIONS: Burn survivors vary in their degree of posttraumatic growth, with growth largely stable by 6 months postinjury. Targeted intervention to facilitate growth, and thus physical health and mental health, should be completed prior to 6 months postinjury. Burn-related stigma may be a modifiable factor that can enhance posttraumatic growth. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).