66 research outputs found
Mental health problems and juvenile sexual offending behavior
No full textDoreleijers, T.A.H. [Promotor]Vermeiren, R.R.J.M. [Promotor]Nauta-Jansen, L.M.C. [Copromotor
The biopsychosocial sequel of childhood adversity from a developmental life-course perspective – from understanding to caring
No full textBackground: Childhood adversities belong to the most important risk factors for adverse functional outcomes in adulthood, comprising risk across biological, psychological and social domains. This long-term bio-psycho-social sequel of adversity spans from major medical diseases, diseases of aging and premature mortality, to internalizing and externalizing psychopathology, to social outcomes including delinquency, poor educational outcomes, early parenthood, and low social support. In the last two decades, a huge publication effort around the long-term sequel of childhood adversities emerged and many studies replicated the obvious finding that cumulated childhood adversities have long-lasting and deleterious effects throughout an individual’s life-course.
Aims: This cumulated dissertation adds to this heterogeneous body of research by looking at the biopsychosocial sequel of adversity from different theoretical perspectives. The research presented in this thesis investigates the prevalence, incidence, distribution and cumulation of adversities and subsequent trauma exposures in an attempt to provide understanding of adversity to shape individuals’ subsequent trajectories.
Method: The studies presented in this thesis are based on different methodological approaches. First, we aggregated findings from the broad literature on the association between childhood adversity and telomere length as presented in a theory-driven review. Second and third, we used data from the large-scale U.S. population-based Health and Retirement Study (HRS) to analyze the cumulation and patterning of childhood adversity and adulthood trauma in older adults.
Results: These studies show, first, the heterogeneity in findings of associations between adversities and telomere length in part through heterogenous assessments of adversities. Second, the compounding of stressors in that childhood adversities increase the risk for subsequent adulthood trauma and that beyond the association of cumulative scores there is a patterning of specifics. And third, that the incidence of specific exposures is embedded within the life-course and related to age, period or cohorts, which is important to consider disentangling fact from artefact.
Discussion: From a theoretical standpoint, advancements in the conceptualization of stress and resilience will help to integrate stress responses and resilience processes, and research on risk and protective mechanisms. Improved and higher-resoluting measures of clearer concepts and heuristics will help to foster understanding of the adverse nature of certain types of exposures and will help to uncover different exposure-related mechanisms that mediate the association between childhood adversities and long-term bio-psycho-social outcomes. And in this way reduce the heterogeneity in findings related to imprecise measures of overlapping concepts. New approaches towards analysis, in particular theory-driven, person-oriented
7
modelling approaches, hold promise to improve our understanding of the cumulation of specific types of adversities within a developmental perspective as well as the subsequent divergent trajectories. Targeting mechanisms, mediators, and moderators that convey risks following childhood adversity will not only provide further understanding of said trajectories, but also highlight opportunities for prevention, intervention and caring efforts.
Conclusion: Targeting childhood adversity at its roots is ethically imperative, a major public health concern, and an issue of social justice. When targeting adversity, a kilo of prevention might be worth a ton of intervention, but still the earlier the intervention the better. Both are preferrable to the costs of starting intervention decades later or doing neither. Understanding the bio-psycho-social sequel of childhood adversity – an interdisciplinary sequel by definition – is crucial to target these prevention and intervention efforts. Research tackling this sequel however has to keep up with the complexity and interdisciplinary nature of the problem it tries to address. There is more to be done, as safe childhoods confer lifelong benefits
Longitudinal studies in forensic child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health: CAPMH thematic series 2018/2019
No full text
Comparing the Central Eight Risk Factors: Do They Differ Across Age Groups of Sex Offenders?
No full textFollowing the risk-need-responsivity (RNR) model, cognitive-behavioral therapy is considered most effective in reducing recidivism when based on dynamic risk factors. As studies have found differences of these factors across age, exploring this seems beneficial. The current study investigates the Central Eight (C8) risk factors across six age groups of outpatient sex offenders ( N = 650). Results showed that recidivism rates and age were inversely related from 19 years and up. Half of the C8 did not predict general recidivism at all, substance abuse, antisocial cognition, antisocial associates, and history of antisocial behavior in only one or several age groups. However, factors differed between age groups, with the youngest group demonstrating the most dysfunction in several areas and the oldest group the least. It is concluded that the C8 risk factors seem to lose significance in the older age groups. Results may benefit targeting treatment goals
Was wird aus Care Leavern? : Ergebnisse einer Längsschnittstudie in einer Hochrisikostichprobe von ehemals außerfamiliär platzierten Jugendlichen
No full textZusammenfassung.
Theoretischer Hintergrund: Verschiedene Studien zeigen auf, dass ehemals ausserfamiliär
platzierte Jugendliche, die viele biologische und psychosoziale Risikofaktoren akkumulieren, im weiteren
Lebenslauf häufig eine geringere soziale Teilhabe aufweisen. Fragestellung: Dieser
Themenschwerpunkt berichtet von einer Längsschnittstudie (JAEL – Jugendhilfe
aus Erfahrung lernen) mit ehemals fremdplatzierten jungen
Erwachsenen, die einer Hochrisikostichprobe zugeordnet werden können. Methode: Die
Studie kombiniert für ihre Forschungsfragen prospektive und retrospektive Aspekte sowie qualitativ und
quantitativ erhobene Daten. Ergebnisse: Der Themenschwerpunkt gibt sowohl eine kurze
Einführung in die Methoden und die Rekrutierung der Stichprobe als auch einen Einblick in drei
ausgewählte Themen, die in den drei Beiträgen dieses Themenschwerpunktes behandelt werden. Der erste
Beitrag berichtet über die Ergebnisse zum Verlauf der psychischen Probleme vom Jugend- bis ins junge
Erwachsenenalter. Der zweite Beitrag befasst sich mit Misshandlung und Vernachlässigung in der Kindheit
als Risikofaktor für die soziale Teilhabe im jungen Erwachsenenalter, wie z. B. Arbeitslosigkeit,
Legalbewährung, sozioökonomische Lage, psychische Gesundheit oder auch Beziehungsfähigkeit.
Diese negativen Auswirkungen können durch Selbstwirksamkeitserfahrungen abgemildert werden. Der dritte
Beitrag beinhaltet einen der bisher weniger beachteter Längsschnittstudienaspekte, nämlich die
Risikofaktoren für eine Persönlichkeitsstörung in einer Hochrisikostichprobe sowie deren
Stabilität. Diskussion und Schlussfolgerung: Auf die Bedeutung und Implikationen
für Interventionen und Jugendhilfepolitik einerseits und die Forschung in diesem Feld andererseits wird
eingegangen
Fact or artefact? Childhood adversity and adulthood trauma in the U.S. population-based Health and Retirement Study
No full textBackground; : Despite the well-known deleterious health effects of childhood adversity (CA) and adulthood trauma (AT) and ageing of the global population, little is known about self-reported CA and AT in older populations. Existing findings are mixed due to methodological and sampling artefacts, in particular, recall and selection biases, and due to age-period-cohort effects.; Objectives; : We aim to first, provide data on the prevalence of retrospective self-reported CA and AT in a large population-based sample of older adults and, second, to discuss the data in the context of major methodological and sampling artefacts, and age-period-cohort effects.; Method; : Data are derived from the U.S. population-based Health and Retirement Study (N = 19,547, mean age = 67.24 ± 11.33, 59% female). Seven birth-cohorts were included ( 1959).; Results; : Overall, 35% of participants reported CA and 62% AT, with strong variability among birth-cohorts. Opposing trends were observed regarding prevalence of CA and AT. As age of cohorts increased, prevalence of CAs decreased while that of ATs increased. Investigating the distributions of incidence of specific ATs across age and period per cohort revealed incidence of exposure was associated with (1) age (e.g. having lost a child), (2) time-period (e.g. major disaster), and (3) cohort (e.g. military combat).; Conclusions; : Retrospective self-reported CA and AT in older samples should be interpreted with caution and with regard to major methodological challenges, including recall and selection biases. Untangling fact from artefact and examining age, period, and cohort effects will help elucidate profiles of lifetime exposures in older populations
- …
