Master of Science

thesisRecent neurobiological, epidemiological, and psychological research has provided evidence for a dissociative subtype of PTSD. However, much of the current evidence base has only included samples of adults with acute trauma exposure, and the literature has not yet determined if there are systematic differences between individuals who do and do not meet criteria for the dissociative subtype. Therefore, additional research is needed to determine whether the dissociative subtype is valid in youth with chronic trauma exposure and what factors affect the likelihood of dissociative subtype membership in youth. Using a sample of 248 adolescents (90 girls, 158 boys) between the ages of 13 to 19, this study sought to confirm the dissociative subtype of PTSD in a sample of traumatized adolescents and to investigate whether peritraumatic dissociation, emotion dysregulation, gender, and betrayal trauma exposure affected the likelihood of dissociative subtype membership. Results indicated that approximately half of participants (50.8%) met criteria for the dissociative subtype. Furthermore, results of logistic regression indicated that adolescents with greater levels of peritraumatic dissociation and emotion dysregulation were at an increased risk of subtype membership. This study has important implications concerning those adolescents who may be particularly likely to receive the dissociative subtype label

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationPrevious research has indicated that youth with a history of maltreatment are more likely to evidence offending behaviors and experience formal involvement in the juvenile justice system compared to nonmaltreated youth. In recent years, increased efforts have been made towards identifying the specific characteristics and correlates of youth known to both the child welfare and juvenile justice systems, a population often referred to as "crossover youth." However, despite identifying risk factors associated with the crossover population, there are a number of limitations to the extant literature, many of which stem from the fact that the majority of studies involving crossover youth thus far have been descriptive in nature. This study investigated the influence of theoretically- and developmentally-relevant constructs, including attachment- and nonattachment-related trauma, emotion dysregulation, posttraumatic risk-seeking (PTRS), and other posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS), in the trajectory from maltreatment exposure to committing offending behaviors. Specifically, the current study investigated the direct and indirect associations among attachment- and nonattachment-related trauma, emotion dysregulation, PTSS, PTRS, and offending behavior, and whether these relations were moderated by gender or by system status. Additionally, the study investigated the unique contribution of PTRS in predicting offending behavior. Results demonstrated a number of significant differences in means, direct, and indirect effects between crossover and JJ-only youth and boys and girls. Additionally, results of hierarchical Poisson regression demonstrated that PTRS did account for significantly more variance in offending behavior when offending behavior was measured via self-report. Finally, results of mixture modeling identified two distinct risk-seeking groups, and, as predicted, high risk-seekers evidenced significantly greater levels of attachment-related trauma exposure, emotion dysregulation, and PTSS. This study has clinical, research, and theoretical implications for better understanding the risk factors and mechanisms associated with the crossover trajectory

Intimate Partner Violence in Adolescence: Associations With Perpetration Trauma, Rumination, and Posttraumatic Stress

Engagement in intimate partner violence (IPV) is related to a host of negative outcomes for youth, including posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). Moreover, research indicates that the perpetration of violence may constitute a traumatic experience, termed perpetration trauma (PT), which, in turn, is related to elevated levels of PTSS. Little research to date, however, has illuminated the underlying processes that may link IPV perpetration, PT, and PTSS. One potential contributor to this association is rumination on negative emotions. In particular, for youth who report PT and rumination, engaging in IPV may be associated with elevations in PTSS. To investigate this hypothesis, data were gathered from a sample of 235 justice-involved youth (184 boys, 51 girls) who completed self-report measures of IPV perpetration and victimization, PT, sadness and anger rumination, and PTSS. Results of moderated mediational analyses indicated that IPV perpetration was related to PTSS through sadness rumination, and that these effects were stronger when youth endorsed PT. In turn, IPV perpetration was related to PTSS through anger rumination only when youth did not endorse PT. In addition, tests of alternative models indicated that these results were specific to IPV perpetration, given that IPV victimization was not related to PTSS through anger or sadness rumination when youth endorsed PT. These results suggest that the combination of rumination on sadness and endorsement of PT may put youth who perpetrate IPV at the greatest risk of PTSS. Therefore, interventions seeking to interrupt the cycle of IPV perpetration may benefit from targeting perpetrators’ sadness rumination, PT, and PTSS. </jats:p