Effects of adolescent trauma exposure on risky behavior in college women.

Individuals with sexual assault or abuse histories are likely to engage in risky sexual and other self-destructive behaviors. Studies of these behaviors, however, have focused on target traumatic events without accounting for other events in the participant's history, recency of the events, and/or developmental level at time of occurrence. The present study addressed some of these confounds by creating groups with unique and non-overlapping trauma histories among adolescent participants whose first trauma occurred at age 12 or older. Sophomore women from six regional campuses were screened in a two-stage procedure, and 209 of 363 final interviewees were included in the present report. These were assigned to a no trauma group, or to one of five groups with a unique trauma history: a single traumatic loss, a single physical assault, a single sexual assault, ongoing sexual or physical abuse, or multiple single traumas. Risky sexual behavior, suicidal ideation, and elevated perpetration of violence were most prominent among those with ongoing abuse exposure, although a single exposure to interpersonal violence during adolescence was sufficient for some risky behaviors. Major depression (MDD) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were associated with many of the behaviors, and may serve to heighten risk.

Mental health effects of adolescent trauma exposure in a female college sample: exploring differential outcomes based on experiences of unique trauma types and dimensions.

Most studies on the psychological impact of trauma exposure focus on the response to a single type of trauma, with little or no attention paid to the contribution of prior traumatic experiences. The goal of this study was to disentangle some of the confounding effects of multiple trauma exposures by exploring the unique contribution to mental health outcomes made by specific types and dimensions of trauma. This report compares the psychological outcomes of college women who experienced different types of trauma during adolescence, including traumatic bereavement, sexual assault, and physical assault. Young women who had experienced a single event of one of these types were compared with peers who had experienced multiple single events, ongoing sexual and/or physical abuse, as well as those who had experienced no trauma. Results, based on structured clinical interviews, and self-report measures showed that there were some significant differences in mental health outcomes based on trauma type. However, trauma exposure versus no exposure and the cumulative effects of exposure versus one-time experiences played the key roles in differentiating the groups.