Internalizing and Externalizing Symptoms in Adolescents With and Without Experiences of Physical Parental Violence, a Latent Profile Analysis on Violence Resilience

Abstract

Questionnaire data from a cross-sectional study on social resilience in adolescence, with a sample of N = 1,974 Swiss seventh grade high school students ages 12–14 (M = 11.76; SD = 0.65) was used to identify and compare violence resilience profiles. Person-centered latent profile analysis (LPA) was applied and allowed for the grouping of adolescents into profiles of internalizing (depression/anxiety, dissociation) and externalizing symptoms (peer aggression, peer victimization, classroom disruption) and differentiation of adolescents with (n = 403) and without (n = 1,571) physical parental violence experiences. Subsequently, a multinomial logistic regression analysis was conducted to further investigate the sociodemographic predictors of violence resilience profiles. With LPA, we identified four distinct profiles for both adolescent groups (with and without parental physical violence experiences). The results showed three particularly burdened profiles of adolescents, one with higher externalizing and one with higher internalizing symptoms, which did not occur simultaneously to the same extent. Furthermore, the third profile contained adolescents with both elevated internalizing and externalizing symptoms, the comorbid profile. The fourth profile consisted of the majority of adolescents, who exhibited little or no internalizing and externalizing symptoms, the so-called no/low symptomatic profile. A differentiated view of the symptoms can create added value regarding the understanding of violence resilience. Moreover, in the multinomial logistic regression, significant associations were found between the profiles and adolescents’ gender in the group of adolescents with parental physical violence experiences, but none were found in relation to sociocultural status and migration background.

The Future of Psychotherapy for Youth

“…CM has also been shown to increase lifetime psychopathology as evidenced by neural responses to threatening faces and LPP signaling (Sandre et al, 2018). Interestingly, CM is also more strongly associated with the development of later internalizing and externalizing symptoms, whereas ETV is more associated with externalizing symptoms only (Estrada et al, 2021, Aksoy et al, 2022. Currently, we know that children and adolescents typically show more symptoms of anxiety and anger, less verbalization of hopelessness, and less negative symptoms in comparison to adults' populations who have depression (Luyten & Fonagy, 2018).…”

“…Additionally, youth with less language skills may also not benefit as much with talk therapy as adolescents (Blom et al, 2014). Older youth tend to be more capable to grasp onto core CBT concepts compared to younger youth, but usually have more life-related difficulties, more internalizing problems, have more psychosocial challenges than youth, and may be less willing to comply with the therapeutic process (Blom et al, 2014, Aksoy et al, 2022. Although many studies have shown that age is not related to treatment completion or outcomes, there are recent studies that demonstrate otherwise (Blom et al, 2014).…”

“…Youth with significant comorbidities are also often excluded from studies examining the effectiveness of these therapies on a given psychiatric condition, such as depression, which severely limits the field from knowing which personalized approaches and adaptions make the most sense for those who do have these comorbidities. This is especially the case for youth who think about suicide and intend to act on it, teens who are angry and hostile, and those who have psychotic features (Steele & Roberts, 2020, Aksoy et al, 2022.…”

Exposure to Intimate-Partner Violence and Resilience Trajectories of Adolescents: A Two-Wave Longitudinal Latent Transition Analysis

“…In terms of individual characteristics, analyses of IPV exposure and resilience outcomes have yielded evidence that maternal education level predicted resilience profiles, although gender and ethnicity did not always show significant results [66]. Kassis et al [10] found that only female gender predicted one's assignment to the resilient group versus the non-resilient group in two waves, and migration background (In Switzerland, due to migration policy and the cultural context [67], people with a migration background are either foreign nationals or naturalized citizens according to the Federal Statistical Office [68]. Individuals born in Switzerland whose parents were born in Switzerland and individuals with birth citizenship whose parents were born abroad are excluded.)…”

Social and Emotional Learning and Internalizing Problems among Adolescents: The Mediating Role of Resilience

“…Additionally, Hildebrand and colleagues reported more internalizing and externalizing problems in children and adolescents with lower levels of resilience [ 45 ]. Similarly, Aksoy and colleagues pointed out that adolescents exposed to parental violence exhibited lower internalization symptoms through resilience [ 46 ], while other studies showed that family-related resilience had a significant impact on preventing the development of internalizing problems [ 47 , 48 ]. Previous researchers have examined the mediating effect of resilience on internalizing and externalizing problems, and various other factors.…”