Dataset Information

Sexual Abuse in Adolescents Is Associated With Atypically Increased Responsiveness Within Regions Implicated in Self-Referential and Emotional Processing to Approaching Animate Threats.

ABSTRACT: Childhood sexual abuse is associated with significant subsequent pathology and neurodevelopmental disruption. In particular, childhood sexual abuse has been associated with heightened threat sensitivity. However, little work has directly investigated this issue. In this study, we examine the association of childhood sexual abuse to neural and behavioral responses to looming, threatening face stimuli. The study involved 23 adolescents with significant past sexual abuse and 24 comparison individuals matched on IQ, age, and sex. Participants were scanned during a looming threat task that involved negative and neutral, human faces and animals that appeared to either loom toward or recede from the participant. We found that adolescents who had been previously subjected to sexual abuse, relative to comparison adolescents, showed increased neural responses to threatening looming stimuli in regions including rostral and superior frontal gyrus as well as posterior cingulate gyrus. In addition, they were significantly more slowed by looming stimuli, particularly if these were human faces, than adolescents who had not been exposed. These data demonstrate that prior sexual abuse was associated with heightened neural responsiveness to looming threats in a series of regions beyond the amygdala. These data are interpreted within models of rostromedial frontal and posterior cingulate cortices that stress their role in self-referential emotional processing and emotional maintenance.

SUBMITTER: Blair KS

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7308525 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Sexual Abuse in Adolescents Is Associated With Atypically Increased Responsiveness Within Regions Implicated in Self-Referential and Emotional Processing to Approaching Animate Threats.

Blair Karina S KS Bashford-Largo Johannah J Shah Niraj N Lukoff Jennie J Elowsky Jaimie J Vogel Steven S Emmert Amanda A Zhang Ru R Dobbertin Matthew M Pollak Seth S Blair James R JR

Frontiers in psychiatry 20200616

Childhood sexual abuse is associated with significant subsequent pathology and neurodevelopmental disruption. In particular, childhood sexual abuse has been associated with heightened threat sensitivity. However, little work has directly investigated this issue. In this study, we examine the association of childhood sexual abuse to neural and behavioral responses to looming, threatening face stimuli. The study involved 23 adolescents with significant past sexual abuse and 24 comparison individua ...[more]

PMID: 32612545

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Project description:Secondary trauma arises through indirect exposure to trauma through engaging with first-hand accounts and narratives of traumatic events. While a significant amount of research has explored secondary trauma experienced by professionals who work with survivors of trauma, such as clinicians and front-line service providers, there is little research exploring the experiences of secondary trauma among violence researchers who routinely engage with traumatic first-hand accounts through their work. This study qualitatively explored violence researcher's professional experiences of secondary trauma and their perceptions of what enables and constrains their own coping and resilience. Participants were recruited using purposive sampling methods. Semi-structured interviews were conducted online with seven female violence researchers from the United Kingdom. Questions explored participant's experiences of secondary trauma symptoms related to their research, perceptions of their own coping and resilience, and experiences of organizational support that have enabled or constrained their resilience. Data were analyzed thematically using a coding framework applied reflexively across interview transcripts. All participants reported experiencing symptoms of secondary trauma from their work including cognitive disturbances; altered beliefs of themselves, others or the world; and challenges connecting with others. Participants' assessment of their own expertise in violence research did not generally impact their perception of their own resilience. Organizational support for violence researchers was rarely provided and participants felt generally unsupported-left to manage any resultant distress alone. Research organizations and universities should implement trauma-informed policies which positively transform workplace culture, provide peer support spaces, and conduct effective training in order to mitigate psychological harm and promote resilience among violence researchers. Support should be tailored to the requirements of violence researchers, and institutions should develop policies that are specifically attentive to the needs of researchers who also have lived experience of violence and abuse.

Project description:Background: Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a worldwide problem affecting children of all ages and socioeconomic backgrounds. A knowledge gap exists regarding the psychological outcomes for children, boys in particular, who are abused during their early lives. Objective: To provide a descriptive psychological profile of children who experienced sexual abuse as infants or toddlers from a male daycare worker and babysitter, and to assess the psychopathological impact on their parents. Method: Parents of children involved in the Amsterdam Sexual Abuse Case (41 parents; 44 children, age range 3-11 years, 30 boys, 14 girls) completed measures on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), dissociation, sexual and non-sexual behaviour problems, and attachment insecurity in their children, as well as on parental psychological well-being, 3 years after disclosure. Sexual abuse characteristics were obtained from police records. Results: We found that 3% of confirmed child victims had PTSD, 30% sexual behaviour problems, 24% internalizing problems, 27% attachment insecurity, and 18% any psychiatric disorder (including PTSD); 39% were asymptomatic. In parents, we found feelings of guilt, shame, and anger about the abuse of their child; 19% showed PTSD symptoms and 3% showed avoidant and 8% anxious attachment problems in their intimate relationship. Parental symptomatology was related to child symptomatology, except for child sexual behaviour problems. One-quarter of confirmed child victims and 45% of parents had received psychological treatment. Conclusions: Three years after disclosure, extrafamilial CSA in very young children was associated with sexual and non-sexual behaviour problems and attachment insecurity, but rarely with PTSD or dissociation. For parents it was associated with PTSD symptoms and emotional reactions. Assessments and interventions should focus on the wide spectrum of problems that follow CSA, as well as on parental psychopathology and the parent-child relationship. Future follow-up assessments in our longitudinal study should provide insights into longer-term outcomes.

Dataset Information

Sexual Abuse in Adolescents Is Associated With Atypically Increased Responsiveness Within Regions Implicated in Self-Referential and Emotional Processing to Approaching Animate Threats.

Publications

Sexual Abuse in Adolescents Is Associated With Atypically Increased Responsiveness Within Regions Implicated in Self-Referential and Emotional Processing to Approaching Animate Threats.

Similar Datasets

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