Associations of caregiver-adolescent conflict and caregiver emotional support with adolescent trauma symptoms and adjustment after sexual abuse.

BACKGROUND: Emotional support from a caregiver is believed to be important for reducing the likelihood of adolescent trauma symptoms and adjustment problems after sexual abuse. Conflict with a caregiver, another relational dynamic, is very common during adolescence, but little is known about how it might operate in tandem with emotional support to influence adolescent trauma symptoms and adjustment after sexual abuse. OBJECTIVE: To better understand how caregiver emotional support and caregiver-adolescent conflict jointly contribute to adolescent trauma symptoms and adjustment after sexual abuse. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Participants were 477 adolescents (Mage = 13.59, SD = 1.77) and a non-offending caregiver presenting at a children's advocacy center. METHODS: Adolescents completed measures of caregiver-adolescent conflict, caregiver emotional support, and their own trauma symptoms and adjustment. Caregivers completed a measure of adolescent adjustment. RESULTS: Caregiver-adolescent conflict and caregiver emotional support each correlated in the expected direction with adolescent trauma symptoms and adjustment (conflict correlations ranged from 0.27 to 0.38, all p values ≤.001; support correlations ranged from -0.15 to -0.21, all p values ≤.01). Regression analyses, which simultaneously considered conflict and support, indicated that conflict related to adolescent trauma symptoms and each of the measures of adolescent adjustment, whereas caregiver emotional support contributed to caregiver reports of adolescent adjustment. Caregiver-adolescent conflict did not moderate any of the relations between caregiver emotional support and adolescent trauma symptoms or adjustment. CONCLUSIONS: In the aftermath of sexual abuse, caregiver-adolescent conflict contributes to adolescent trauma symptoms and adjustment.

Non-supportive responses to adolescents who have experienced sexual abuse: Relations with self-blame and trauma symptoms.

BACKGROUND: Youth who have experienced sexual abuse sometimes also experience non-supportive responses, such as accusations of lying, from people in their family and social environment. Little is known about how such responses from different sources (caregivers, friends, other adults) correlate with one another and operate together in the prediction of youth problematic thinking, such as self-blame, and trauma symptoms. OBJECTIVE: To better understand how non-supportive responses from different sources relate to one another and contribute to youth problems following sexual abuse. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Participants were 475 youths (Mage = 13.57, SD = 1.77) brought to a children's advocacy center in the southern United States. METHODS: Participants completed measures of non-supportive responses from caregivers, friends, and other adults. They also completed measures of abuse-specific self-blame and trauma symptoms. RESULTS: Non-supportive responses from caregivers, friends, and other adults correlated with each other and with abuse-specific self-blame and trauma symptoms (correlations ranged from 0.12 to 0.18; all p values <.001). Results of regression analyses indicated that only non-supportive responses from caregivers contributed independently to abuse-specific self-blame, whereas non-supportive responses from caregivers and friends contributed to trauma symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: In the aftermath of sexual abuse, non-supportive responses from caregivers and friends relate to youth trauma symptoms. Assessing non-supportive responses broadly across the social network can be useful in understanding youth adjustment following sexual abuse.

Measurement invariance of caregiver support following sexual abuse across age, relationship, and English-Spanish language.

BACKGROUND: The Maternal Self-report Support Questionnaire (MSSQ) is among the most rigorously evaluated measures of caregiver support following child sexual abuse, but there is a paucity of data on the factor structure and variance of the MSSQ across diverse groups of caregivers and their children. OBJECTIVE: The present study examined the factor structure and measurement invariance of the MSSQ across 386 non-offending caregivers following a disclosure of child sexual abuse. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Data were collected from non-offending caregivers at two Child Advocacy Centers (n = 277; n = 109) in the United States. METHODS: Caregivers completed the MSSQ and assessments of child age, caregiver-child relationship, and caregiver preferred language. RESULTS: Confirmatory factor analyses replicated the original two-factor structure, with the emotional support and blame/doubt subscales emerging as distinct factors. Multigroup confirmatory factor analyses showed measurement invariance across child age and caregiver-child relationship (mother vs. another caregiver). Evidence of partial invariance was found for caregiver preferred language. Comparisons of scores indicated caregiver support varied by child age and caregiver preferred language. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, findings suggest the MSSQ can be used to measure caregiver support across caregivers with children of different ages and both mothers and non-mothers, but caution should be practiced in interpreting mean-level differences between English- and Spanish-speaking caregivers.

Self-Blame in Adolescents Who Have Been Sexually Abused: Factor Structure and Differential Correlates of Abuse-Specific and Global Measures.

Self-blame appraisals are frequently studied among adolescents following sexual abuse. However, the conceptualization and operationalization of self-blame varies across studies, with some examining self-blame specific to the abuse and others examining global self-blame. The present study examined the factor structure and theorized correlates of measures of self-blame appraisals among a sample of adolescents who had been sexually abused (N = 493, 91% female). Results of confirmatory factor analyses indicated that a two-factor model, in which abuse-specific and global self-blame appraisals load onto separate factors, produced a superior model fit compared with a single-factor model, though the two factors were highly correlated. Abuse-specific and global self-blame appraisals are differentially associated with theorized correlates, such as experiencing coercion during the abuse. Taken together, the findings suggest that adolescents' abuse-specific and global self-blame appraisals following sexual abuse are measuring distinct constructs.

Families seeking services for sexual abuse: Intimate partner violence, mothers' psychological distress, and mother-adolescent conflict.

Child sexual abuse (CSA) and intimate partner violence (IPV) are both global problems with negative health implications. This study examines whether mothers' lifetime experiences of IPV relate to their own psychological distress and to mother-adolescent conflict in families in which an adolescent has disclosed sexual abuse. The recency of IPV was examined as a potential moderator of these relations. Participants were 356 adolescents and their nonoffending mothers. Families were seeking services from a children's advocacy center in the southern United States. Mothers reported their IPV victimization (both lifetime and past month) and symptoms of psychological distress; mothers and adolescents both reported on mother-adolescent conflict. In bivariate analyses, mothers' lifetime experiences of IPV were positively related to mothers' psychological distress, and to mother and adolescent reports of mother-adolescent conflict. These same relations emerged in regression analyses that controlled for characteristics of the sexual abuse (time between the disclosure of CSA and the assessment, severity, relationship to the alleged perpetrator, duration), and adolescent age and sex. Recency of IPV did not moderate these relations. In exploratory analyses, mothers' lifetime experiences of IPV were more strongly associated with mother-son conflict than with mother-daughter conflict. In addition, mothers' psychological distress partially mediated the relation between their lifetime experiences of IPV and their reports of mother-adolescent conflict. The findings point to the potential utility of conducting IPV screenings with caregivers in families seeking services for an adolescent after a sexual abuse disclosure. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Caregiver and divine support: Associations with resilience among adolescents following disclosure of sexual abuse.

BACKGROUND: Social support is believed to be important for fostering adolescent resilience following sexual abuse. Caregiver support is often examined as a source of support for adolescents, but divine support (support from God or a higher power) has received scant research attention. OBJECTIVE: This study examines relations of caregiver support and divine support with resilience following adolescent sexual abuse. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Participants were 548 adolescents aged 11-17 (Mage = 13.78; 91% female) and their non-offending caregivers (Mage = 39.68; 79% mothers). Families were recruited from a children's advocacy center located in the southern United States following a disclosure of sexual abuse. METHODS: Adolescents completed measures of caregiver and divine support and their social and academic functioning; caregivers and adolescents reported on adolescent psychological functioning. Resilience was operationalized as the absence of clinical levels of psychological symptoms together with the presence of adaptive levels of social and academic functioning. RESULTS: Both caregiver support (r = .19, p < .001) and divine support (r = .14, p = .001) were positively associated with resilience. Considered together in regression analyses, caregiver support (OR = 1.02, p = .001) and divine support (OR = 1.06, p = .04) were both associated with resilience. CONCLUSION: Clinicians and researchers should consider the potential contribution of caregiver and divine support to adolescent resilience following sexual abuse.