Childhood Maltreatment and Threats With Weapons

Casiano, Hygiea; Mota, Natalie; Afifi, Tracie O.; Enns, Murray W.; Sareen, Jitender

doi:10.1097/nmd.0b013e3181be9c55

Cited by 13 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 48 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…To elaborate, maltreatment significantly increased the chances of being convicted of a non-violent or a violent adult weapons charge, reinforcing findings from Hygiea, Mota, Afifi, Enns, & Sareen (2009). The study also revealed that maltreatment among CLS participants significantly predicted all adult and lifetime measures of general violence, reinforcing confidence in relations found.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 71%

From Child Maltreatment to Violent Offending

Topitzes

Mersky

Reynolds

2012

J Interpers Violence

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Research suggests that child maltreatment predicts later violence, but it is uncertain whether the effects of victimization persist into adulthood or differ across gender. Further, mechanisms underlying the victim-perpetrator cycle for males and females are in question. Consequently, this study analyzed relations between child maltreatment and adult/lifetime violent offending within mixed-gender and gender-specific models. Along with main effect models, the study directly tested the moderating effects of gender on the maltreatment-violence link and explored theory-informed gender-specific mediators. Data were derived from the Chicago Longitudinal Study, a panel investigation of 1,539 low-income minority participants born in 1979 or 1980. Child welfare, juvenile court, and criminal court records informed the study’s explanatory and outcome measures. Covariate and mediator measures originated from prospectively collected parent-, teacher-, and self-reports along with several administrative sources. Results indicated that child maltreatment, ages 0–11, significantly predicted all indicators of violence in the full sample, and most study outcomes in the male and female subsamples. In no instance did gender moderate the maltreatment-violence association. Childhood environmental instability, child externalizing behaviors, and peer social skills fully mediated the maltreatment-violence nexus among males. Adolescent externalizing behavior partially mediated the relation of interest among females; evidence also indicated that internalizing processes protected females who had been maltreated in childhood against later perpetration of violence. Implications of results are discussed.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 71%

From Child Maltreatment to Violent Offending

Topitzes

Mersky

Reynolds

2012

J Interpers Violence

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…We found in a sample of 18-22 year olds that it was associated with moderately large effects on ratings of depression, anger-hostility, dissociation and limbic ‘irritability’, and with very large effect sizes when combined with exposure to other forms of maltreatment (Teicher et al, 2006a). WDV increases risk for depression (Nicodimos et al, 2009) and aggression (Abrahams and Jewkes, 2005; Casiano et al, 2009) by 2-4 fold, and is one of the most common causes of childhood PTSD (Luthra et al, 2009; Silva et al, 2000). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reduced fractional anisotropy in the visual limbic pathway of young adults witnessing domestic violence in childhood

et al. 2012

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Witnessing domestic violence (WDV) is a traumatic childhood experience associated with increased risk for depression, posttraumatic stress disorder and reduced IQ scores. Specific affects of WDV on brain development have not been assessed. We sought to ascertain whether WDV was associated with abnormalities in white matter (WM) tract integrity using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Twenty subjects who witnessed domestic violence (16F/ 4M, mean age 22.4±2.48 yrs) but were not physically or sexually abused were compared to 27 healthy controls (19F/ 8M, 21.9±1.97 yrs) without exposure to trauma or Axis I and II disorders. DTI images were acquired with a 3T Siemens Trio scanner. Group differences in fractional anisotropy (FA), covaried by age, gender, parental education, perceived financial sufficiency, IQ and degree of exposure to parental verbal aggression were assessed using tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS), which projects FA values onto an alignment-invariant fiber tract representation. FA values in the inferior longitudinal fasciculus of left lateral occipital lobe were significantly lower (p<0.05 corrected for multiple comparison) in the WDV group. FA values correlated inversely with ratings of depression, anxiety, somatization, ‘limbic irritability’ and neuropsychological measures of processing speed. Measures of radial but not axial diffusivity were affected suggesting alterations in myelination. Degree of FA reduction was associated with duration of witnessing interparental verbal aggression and with exposure between ages 7 – 13 years. The inferior longitudinal fasciculus connects occipital and temporal cortex and is the main component of the visual–limbic pathway that subserves emotional, learning and memory functions that are modality specific to vision. This finding is consistent with the hypothesis that exposure to childhood maltreatment is associated with alterations in fiber pathways that convey the adverse experience to frontal, temporal or limbic regions.

show abstract

“…Although many parents try to shelter their children from WDV, children in violent homes commonly see, hear, and intervene in episodes of WDV [2]. WDV increases risk for depression [3] and aggression [4], [5] by 2–4 fold, and is a frequent causes of childhood PTSD [6], [7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reduced Visual Cortex Gray Matter Volume and Thickness in Young Adults Who Witnessed Domestic Violence during Childhood

et al. 2012

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Exposure to interparental violence is associated with negative outcomes, such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and reduced cognitive abilities. However, little is known about the potential effects of witnessing domestic violence during childhood on gray matter volume (GMV) or cortical thickness. High-resolution 3.0 T volumetric scans (Siemens Trio Scanner) were obtained on 52 subjects (18–25 years) including 22 (6 males/16 females) with a history of visually witnessing episodes of domestic violence, and 30 (8 males/22 females) unexposed control subjects, with neither a current nor past DSM-IV Axis I or II disorder. Potential confounding effects of age, gender, level of parental verbal aggression, parental education, financial stress, full scale IQ, and total GMV, or average thickness were modeled using voxel based morphometry and FreeSurfer. Witnessing domestic violence subjects had a 6.1% GMV reduction in the right lingual gyrus (BA18) (P = 0.029, False Discovery Rate corrected peak level). Thickness in this region was also reduced, as was thickness in V2 bilaterally and left occipital pole. Theses regions were maximally sensitive to exposure to witnessing domestic violence between 11–13 years of age. Regional reductions in GMV and thickness were observed in both susceptible and resilient witnessing domestic violence subjects. Results in subjects witnessing domestic violence were similar to previously reported results in subjects with childhood sexual abuse, as the primary region affected was visual cortex. Brain regions that process and convey the adverse sensory input of the abuse may be specifically modified by this experience, particularly in subjects exposed to a single type of maltreatment. Exposure to multiple types of maltreatment is more commonly associated with morphological alterations in corticolimbic regions. These findings fit with preclinical studies showing that visual cortex is a highly plastic structure.

show abstract

Childhood Maltreatment and Threats With Weapons

Cited by 13 publications

References 48 publications

From Child Maltreatment to Violent Offending

From Child Maltreatment to Violent Offending

Reduced fractional anisotropy in the visual limbic pathway of young adults witnessing domestic violence in childhood

Reduced Visual Cortex Gray Matter Volume and Thickness in Young Adults Who Witnessed Domestic Violence during Childhood

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About