Childhood maltreatment and resource acquisition in African American women: The role of self-esteem.

Abstract

Objective: Childhood maltreatment (CM) is a public health crisis that results in negative physical, mental health, and psychosocial (e.g., resource attainment) outcomes. Resource attainment is a critical outcome for marginalized populations, such as low-income African American women. This study addresses the gap in the literature regarding the association between CM and effectiveness of resource attainment and the potential mediating role of self-esteem in this association for African American women. Method: Data were gathered from a large public inner-city, university-affiliated health care system in the Southeastern United States. Participants selected were low-income African American women who have experienced intimate partner violence (IPV) and have attempted suicide in the prior year. The participants for this study completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, the Beck Self-Esteem Scale, and the Effectiveness in Obtaining Resources Scale. Results: Mediation analyses using bootstrapping with 213 women revealed the powerful role self-esteem plays in explaining the link between CM and resource attainment in low-income African American women. Specifically, overall CM and four of its subtypes (emotional abuse, physical abuse, emotional neglect, and physical neglect) were all associated with decreased resource attainment via the effect of decreased self-esteem. Sexual abuse was the only subtype of CM not significantly associated with self-esteem nor effectiveness of resource attainment. Conclusion: This research highlights the importance of screening for CM, its subtypes, and resource attainment in this population and bolstering self-esteem through psychological interventions to increase women’s capacity to effectively secure necessary community resources.

Collective trauma: Childhood abuse, perceived discrimination, and COVID-19.

“…Even without the heightened quantity of stress input (e.g., number of interpersonal stressors), adults who have experienced more child abuse types can be more susceptible to negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic due to limited resources to cope with stressors. Clark et al (2021) revealed that childhood abuse was related to less effective resource attainment following adulthood trauma in low-income Black women. Abuse histories were also associated with less perceived social support in adults, which in turn predicted elevated mass trauma-related psychopathology symptoms (Littleton et al, 2012).…”

Evidence of Help-Seeking Behaviors Among Black Women Under Community Supervision in New York City: A Plea for Culturally Tailored Intimate Partner Violence Interventions

“… 24 Furthermore, those with more social support have reported higher self-esteem and deploy more positive coping skills. 25 …”

Child emotional abuse and adult depressive symptoms in a nationally representative sample of Black females: The moderating role of adolescent sleep duration.

“…Crow et al (2014) reported that 19.2% of Black females had moderate to severe levels of emotional abuse. Others have also reported medium to high levels among Black females (Clark et al, 2021;Lamis et al, 2014). Moreover, with respect to depression, at least 50% of Black women in a primary care setting had symptoms of depression (Holden et al, 2013), and nearly half of Black adolescent females in the United States have reported experiencing symptoms of depression such as persistent feelings of sadness and hopeless (Kann et al, 2018).…”

“…Black girls have reported experiences of racial discrimination (Burt & Simons, 2015), gender discrimination (Grollman, 2012), and both racial and sexual discrimination (Joseph et al, 2016). The stress of gendered racism (at the intersection of race and gender) is associated with psychological distress and depressive symptoms in Black females (Clark et al, 2021; Cole, 2009; Essed, 1991; Paradies et al, 2015, Pieterse et al, 2013; Thomas et al, 2008).…”