Joan L. Jackson

Young adult women who report childhood intrafamilial sexual abuse: subsequent adjustment

Young adult women who had experienced incest and a matched comparison group were examined for differences in interpersonal functioning, sexual functioning, self-esteem, and emotional adjustment. Those reporting incest reported significantly poorer general social adjustment, especially in dating relationships. They had significantly lower levels of sexual satisfaction, lower self-esteem, and distorted body images, as well as greater depression and lower positive affect. These characteristics may be related not only to the incest experience but to the general family environment in which incest occurred, as significant differences in family characteristcs were also observed.

Child Maltreatment, Emotion Regulation, and Posttraumatic Stress: The Impact of Emotional Abuse

This study examined the relationship of emotion regulation to multiple forms of child abuse and subsequent posttraumatic stress. Particular consideration was given to emotional abuse, which has received less attention in the literature. Results from a survey of 912 female college students revealed that women who reported a history of sexual, physical, or emotional abuse endorsed greater emotion regulation difficulties compared to women without abuse histories. Notably, emotional abuse was the strongest predictor of emotion deregulation. Mediation analyses indicated that emotion dysregulation partially explained the relationship between physical and emotional abuse and symptoms of posttraumatic stress, suggesting that intervention efforts aimed at improving emotion regulation strategies might be beneficial in decreasing posttraumatic stress among women with child maltreatment histories.

Gender differences in stress reactivity among cocaine-dependent individuals

RationaleRecent investigations suggest that stress reactivity may play an important role in the relationship between stress and substance use. Important gender differences, such as reasons for using substances, have been well documented, and it is likely that men and women also differ in their stress response.ObjectivesIn this study, gender differences in stress reactivity to two laboratory stress manipulations were examined among 18 men and 21 women with current cocaine dependence.MethodsParticipants completed a psychological stress task, the Mental Arithmetic Task (MAT), and a physical stress task, the Cold Pressor Task (CPT). Subjective stress responses (i.e., feelings of stress, anxiety, nervousness, pain, mood), physiological stress responses (i.e., heart rate, skin conductance), and cocaine craving were assessed.ResultsIn response to both the MAT and the CPT, significant increases in subjective and physiological stress were observed among participants. Women, however, demonstrated greater subjective reactivity, as evidenced by significantly higher ratings of stress, nervousness, and pain as compared to men. Women also immersed their hand in the cold water bath for a significantly shorter period of time as compared to men.ConclusionsThe current findings are among the first to report on gender differences in stress reactivity among cocaine-dependent individuals. The findings suggest that the mechanisms linking stress and substance use may be gender-specific, and that stress reactivity may play a different role for women than for men. Future research and implications for clinical interventions are discussed.

Deficits in emotion regulation mediate the relationship between childhood abuse and later eating disorder symptoms

The present study examined the relationship of child maltreatment to both emotion dysregulation and subsequent eating pathology. In an effort to extend previous research, the authors examined the unique impact of childhood emotional abuse (CEA) on emotion dysregulation and eating disorder (ED) symptoms while controlling for the effects of sexual and physical abuse. Structural equation modeling was utilized to simultaneously examine the effects of all three abuse types on multiple dependent variables as well as examine whether deficits in emotion regulation mediated the relationship between abuse and eating pathology. Results from a survey of 1,254 female college students revealed significant paths from abuse subtypes to specific eating disorder symptoms, with CEA evidencing the strongest association with ED symptoms. Additionally, emotion dysregulation was positively associated with ED symptoms, and mediated the effects of emotional abuse on symptoms. Findings support previous research on the enduring effects of emotional abuse as well as highlight the importance of the assessment of CEA in the treatment of ED symptoms.

Parent's accuracy in estimating child weight status

Mothers of 107 preschool children estimated their childs weight status, and the accuracy of these estimates was examined. The majority of mothers (72%) were accurate. Of those who were inaccurate, 83% had underestimated the childs weight status, whereas only 17% had overestimated. Mothers of heavier children were more likely to underestimate their childs weight status.

Child Sexual Abuse, Early Family Risk, and Childhood Parentification : Pathways to Current Psychosocial Adjustment

In this study, the authors examined the role of parentification (children assuming adult-like roles in the family) as it relates to family risk (parental psychopathology, parental illness, and domestic violence), child sexual abuse (CSA), and psychosocial adjustment in 499 college women. Structural equation modeling was used to test a model of direct, indirect, and mediational pathways through which CSA, family risk, and parentification contributed to later psychosocial maladjustment. Results indicate that CSA and family risk independently and directly predicted higher levels of maladjustment, but only family risk positively predicted parentification in childhood. Parentification was unexpectedly related to less maladjustment. Parentification failed to mediate the relation between early family risk and maladjustment. Findings suggest that family risk factors may contribute to parentification and that parentification is not always related to poorer psychosocial outcomes. Future research should examine the impact of parentification on other aspects of functioning and should assess how individual, familial, and cultural variables (e.g., age, gender, duration, perceived fairness, ethnicity, and family support) moderate the impact of parentification on long-term adjustment.

Family environments of victims of intrafamilial and extrafamilial child sexual abuse

The family environments of Intrafamilial and extrafamilial childhood sexual abuse victims were examined to determine whether characteristics of incestuous families that appear to place children at risk for abuse can also be viewed as risk factors for abuse by a perpetrator outside the family. Participants were 31 college women identified as victims of childhood incest, 49 victims of extrafamilial abuse, and 49 nonvictims. They completed a questionnaire soliciting demographic and abuse-relevant information and the Family Environment Scale (FES). A multivariate analysis of variance and descriptive discriminant analysis of FES scores revealed that both intrafamilial and extrafamilial victim groups differed significantly from the nonabused group on a family functioning dimension comprised of cohesion, active recreational orientation, moralreligious emphasis, independence, and organization. The results thus supported the hypothesis that family characteristics associated with the occurrence of intrafamilial abuse were also associated with the occurrence of extrafamilial sexual assault. Implications of the findings as well as suggestions for further research are discussed.

Avoidant Coping and Treatment Outcome in Rape-Related Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

OBJECTIVE This study investigated the impact of avoidant coping on treatment outcome in rape-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). METHOD Adult women with rape-related PTSD (N = 62) received 9 sessions of prolonged exposure (PE) or eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR). The mean age for the sample was 34.7 years, and race or ethnicity was reported as 67.7% Caucasian, 25.8% African American, 3.2% Latina, and 3.2% other. PTSD was assessed with the PTSD Symptom Scale-Self-Report (Foa, Riggs, Dancu, & Rothbaum, 1993), and avoidant coping was assessed using the Coping Strategies Inventory-Disengagement subscale (CSI-D; Tobin, Holroyd, Reynolds, & Wigal, 1989). RESULTS Pretreatment avoidant coping was negatively associated with posttreatment PTSD symptom severity even when controlling for initial severity of total PTSD symptoms and when removing PTSD avoidance symptoms from the analysis to account for potential overlap between avoidant coping and PTSD avoidance symptoms: ΔR2 = .08, b* = -0.31, 95% CI [-0.17, -0.01], t(60) = -2.27, p = .028. The CSI-D pretreatment mean score of 100 predicted a 96% likelihood of experiencing clinically significant change (CSC) during treatment. A CSI-D pretreatment score of 61 was associated with a 40% likelihood of experiencing CSC. CONCLUSIONS PE and EMDR appear to be beneficial for women who frequently engage in avoidant coping responses following rape. A small subset of women with initially low levels of avoidant coping are unlikely to experience a therapeutic response from PE or EMDR.

Children Sexually Abused by Multiple Perpetrators Familial Risk Factors and Abuse Characteristics

This study investigates familial characteristics, as measured by the Family Environment Scale, and characteristics of the initial abuse experience as risk factors for multiple sexual victimization. Subjects were 324 college women including 16 with a history of sexual abuse by more than one perpetrator, 146 with a history of sexual abuse by a single perpetrator, and 162 with no history of abuse. Multiple-perpetrator victims characterized their families as displaying less cohesion, less expressiveness, more conflict, and more hierarchical rigidity in rule-governed behavior than did either single-perpetrator victims or nonvictims. In addition, both multiple-perpetrator victims and single-perpetrator victims reported that their families displayed less organization than did nonvictims. Multiple-perpetrator victims were both more likely to be abused by an intrafamilial perpetrator at first abuse, and to be younger at the onset of the first abuse, than were single-perpetrator victims. Initial abuse characteristics were related to characteristics of later victimizations. It is suggested that family dysfunction and initial abuse characteristics may serve as risk factors for multiple victimization.

Childhood Sexual Abuse An Examination of Family Functioning

A sample of 80 college women retrospectively reporting childhood sexual abuse and 92 college women failing to report any history of abuse were examined to investigate the patterns of family functioning existing in the homes of childhood sexual abuse victims. In addition, the relationship between family functioning and the occurrence of various patterns of abuse was explored. Using a typology based on the Family Environment Scale, womens families were classified by type. Results indicated that victims and nonvictims were not equally distributed across the family types. More victims than nonvictims were found to have been reared in disorganized families, and fewer victims than nonvictims were found to have been reared in support-oriented families. No significant relationships were evident between family functioning and abuse characteristics. The relationship between these family types and risk for abuse is discussed.