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Child / Adolescent - Trauma / Maltreatment

The role of family stability and positive emotion regulation in the relationship between childhood maltreatment and responses to stressful events

(PS6-63) The Role of Family Stability and Positive Emotion Regulation in the Relationship Between Childhood Maltreatment and Responses to Stressful Events

Friday, November 15, 2024

4:00 PM – 5:00 PM EST

Location: Franklin Hall, Level 4, Marriott Downtown

Author(s)

Vidhi Jain, B.A.

Graduate Student
University at Albany, State University of New York
Albany, New York, United States

Co-Author(s)

EG

Elana B. Gordis, Ph.D.

Interim Director Psychological Services Center and Associate Professor of Psychology
University at Albany SUNY
Albany, New York, United States

Abstract Text: The relationship between childhood maltreatment and maladaptive responses to stressful events is well-established. Extant research demonstrates that when faced with a stressful life event, individuals who have experienced maltreatment in childhood tend to respond with maladaptive instead of adaptive strategies, contributing to increased psychological distress (Leitenberg et al., 2004; Gruhn & Compas, 2020). Adaptive responses to stressful life events are essential to well-being and can be protective against the adverse effects of stressors, especially when personal diatheses such as childhood maltreatment are involved (Holahan et al., 2017). Given this, the increasing prevalence of childhood maltreatment (Stoltenborgh et al., 2014) is concerning, especially considering that interpersonal or intrapersonal protective factors that may buffer against the negative impacts of childhood maltreatment are understudied. This study explores how two such factors – family stability and positive cognitive emotion regulation strategies – influence the link between childhood maltreatment and adaptive responses to stressful events. Specifically, we investigated if family stability and positive emotion regulation moderate the link between childhood maltreatment and adaptive responses to stressful events. A sample of undergraduates (N = 210; 49.5% white; 49.5% female) at a state university retrospectively reported on their experiences of childhood maltreatment and stability of activities (e.g., regularity of routine, family engagement, communication) in their family environment, and their current cognitive emotion regulation skills (e.g., positive reappraisal) and how they respond to stressful events (e.g., “take action to fix things”). A 3-way interaction found that the impact of positive emotion regulation on responses to stressful events depended on the levels of childhood maltreatment and family stability. These results demonstrate the need to foster stability in the family environments of children experiencing maltreatment and emphasize the development of positive emotion regulation strategies. The actionable nature of these targets makes them especially conducive to intervention efforts and practitioners are encouraged to incorporate these aspects in case formulation and therapeutic processes.