Biological Correlates of Child and Adolescent Responses to Disaster Exposure: a Bio-Ecological Model

Weems, Carl F.

doi:10.1007/s11920-015-0588-7

Cited by 21 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…An individual's susceptibility or resilience to the impact of traumatic stress depends on temporal factors, such as the developmental timing of the event (Teicher & Samson, ), pre‐exposure functioning (Weems & Graham, ), socioeconomic context and social support (Jaffee, ), and genetic susceptibility to environmental influences (Belsky, ). From this, Weems () developed a model of risk and resilience to traumatic stress, describing three critical components predicting an individual's response. The first represents qualities of exposure, such as subjective judgments of the intensity and/or negativity of the experience(s), as well as mitigating or positive components of the event (e.g., individuals were evacuated successfully from a disaster, community worked together for common good).…”

Section: Directions For Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Assessing the large samples of trauma exposed youth needed for such studies while simultaneously addressing the timing of the traumatic event might be facilitated by deploying research teams to assess youth in the immediate aftermath of large scale traumatic events such as disasters (Weems, ). Studying the neurodevelopmental response to trauma using a natural disaster event offers a methodological advantage with regard to the accurate timing of the initial trauma (e.g., date for a disaster and the age at that time can be objectively known).…”

Section: Directions For Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Annual Research Review: Pediatric posttraumatic stress disorder from a neurodevelopmental network perspective

Weems

Russell

Neill

et al. 2018

Child Psychology Psychiatry

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Background: Experiencing traumatic stress is common and may lead to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in a number of children and adolescents. Research using advanced imaging techniques is beginning to elucidate some of the neurobiological correlates of the traumatic stress response in youth. Methods: This paper summarizes the emerging network perspective of PTSD symptoms and reviews brain imaging research emphasizing structural and functional connectivity studies that employ magnetic resonance imaging techniques in pediatric samples. Results: Differences in structural connections and distributed functional networks such as the salience, default mode, and central executive networks are associated with traumatic and severe early life stress. The role of development has been relatively underappreciated in extant studies though there is evidence that critical brain regions as well as the structural and functional networks implicated undergo significant change in childhood and these typical developmental differences may be affected by traumatic stress. Conclusions: Future research will benefit from adopting a truly developmental approach that considers children's growth as a meaningful effect (rather than simply a covariate) interacting with traumatic stress to predict disruptions in the anatomical, functional, and connective aspects of brain systems thought to underlie the network of PTSD symptoms. Linking symptom networks with neurodevelopmental network models may be a promising avenue for future work.

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Section: Directions For Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Directions For Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Annual Research Review: Pediatric posttraumatic stress disorder from a neurodevelopmental network perspective

Weems

Russell

Neill

et al. 2018

Child Psychology Psychiatry

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“…Our results also showed the number of potentially traumatic events, related to the earthquake, as predictors of the MOODS-SR rhythmicity and vegetative functions impairment, positively moderated by re-experiencing symptoms. There is evidence that traumatic experiences, including disasters, lead to changes in diurnal cortisol patterns (90)(91)(92) and that a cumulative trauma exposure may progressively disrupt circadian rhythms and other vegetative functions, including sleep, eating behaviors, or somatic complaints (70,(93)(94)(95)(96)(97)(98)(99). Our results showed the relationship between the traumatic events burden and rhythmicity and vegetative functions impairment in subjects with medium-high levels of re-experiencing symptoms only.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 55%

Disrupted Rhythmicity and Vegetative Functions Relate to PTSD and Gender in Earthquake Survivors

et al. 2020

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Background: Increasing evidence indicates that survivors to traumatic events may show disruption of sleep pattern, eating and sexual behaviors, and somatic symptoms suggestive of alterations of biorhythmicity and vegetative functions. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate these possible alterations in a sample of survivors in the aftermath of earthquake exposure, with particular attention to gender differences and impact of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Methods: High school senior students, who had been exposed to the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake, were enrolled 21 months after the traumatic event and evaluated by the Trauma and Loss Spectrum Self-Report to investigate PTSD rates and by a domain of the Mood Spectrum Self-Report–Lifetime Version (MOODS-SR), to explore alterations in circadian/seasonal rhythms and vegetative functions. Results: The rates of endorsement of MOODS-SR rhythmicity and vegetative functions domain and subdomain scores were significantly higher in survivors with PTSD with respect to those without it. Among all earthquake survivors, women reported higher scores than men on the rhythmicity and vegetative functions domain and subdomain scores, except for the rhythmicity and sexual functions ones. Female survivors without PTSD showed significantly higher scores than men in the rhythmicity and vegetative functions total scores and the sleep and weight and appetite subdomains. Potentially traumatic events burden predicted rhythmicity and vegetative functions impairment, with a moderation effect of re-experiencing symptoms. Conclusions: We report impairments in rhythmicity, sleep, eating, and sexual and somatic health in survivors to a massive earthquake, particularly among subjects with PTSD and higher re-experiencing symptoms, with specific gender-related differences. Evaluating symptoms of impaired rhythmicity and vegetative functions seems essential for a more accurate assessment and clinical management of survivors to a mass trauma.

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“…Indeed, studies aimed at determining predictors of vulnerability and resilience in children who have been exposed to stress and adversity support the key role of the caregiving environment on child development (Masten, 2001; Masten & Narayan, 2012). More specifically, bio-ecological models of disaster exposure in youth suggest that a child's susceptibility to disaster exposure and its biological correlates is influenced by salient features of the environment, such as parenting (Weems, 2015). Empirical studies in this area have focused on child symptom and functioning outcomes rather than effects on neurodevelopment, and contextual measures have tended to focus on parental psychopathology and functioning rather than parenting styles and practices (e.g., Spell et al, 2008).…”

Section: Parentingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parenting style moderates the effects of exposure to natural disaster-related stress on the neural development of reactivity to threat and reward in children

et al. 2019

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Little is known about the effect of natural disasters on children's neural development. Additionally, despite evidence that stress and parenting may both influence the development of neural systems underlying reward and threat processing, few studies have brought together these areas of research. The current investigation examined the effect of parenting styles and hurricane-related stress on the development of neural reactivity to reward and threat in children. Approximately 8 months before and 9 months after Hurricane Sandy, 74 children experiencing high and low levels of hurricane-related stress completed tasks that elicited the reward positivity and error-related negativity, event-related potentials indexing sensitivity to reward and threat, respectively. At the post-Hurricane assessment, children completed a self-report questionnaire to measure promotion- and prevention-focused parenting styles. Among children exposed to high levels of hurricane-related stress, lower levels of promotion-focused, but not prevention-focused, parenting were associated with a reduced post-Sandy reward positivity. In addition, in children with high stress exposure, greater prevention-focused, but not promotion-focused, parenting was associated with a larger error-related negativity after Hurricane Sandy. These findings highlight the need to consider contextual variables such as parenting when examining how exposure to stress alters the development of neural reactivity to reward and threat in children.

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Biological Correlates of Child and Adolescent Responses to Disaster Exposure: a Bio-Ecological Model

Cited by 21 publications

References 55 publications

Annual Research Review: Pediatric posttraumatic stress disorder from a neurodevelopmental network perspective

Annual Research Review: Pediatric posttraumatic stress disorder from a neurodevelopmental network perspective

Disrupted Rhythmicity and Vegetative Functions Relate to PTSD and Gender in Earthquake Survivors

Parenting style moderates the effects of exposure to natural disaster-related stress on the neural development of reactivity to threat and reward in children

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