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Background: Adolescents who have been sexually abused commonly experience trauma symptoms, and many spend considerable time waiting for treatment., Objective: This study examines the extent to which adolescent perceptions of divine spiritual support, divine spiritual struggles, and self-blame collected during a screening assessment predict trauma symptoms at the beginning of treatment., Participants and Setting: Participants were 224 adolescents (92.9 % female, Mean age = 13.46 years; 53.6 % identified as Hispanic/Latino/a and 24.1 % Black/African American). All obtained services at a Children's Advocacy Center in the southern United States., Methods: Adolescents reported on trauma symptoms, divine spiritual support, divine spiritual struggles, and self-blame appraisals at a screening assessment (T1). Trauma symptoms were also reported a second time when beginning treatment (T2)., Results: The mean level of trauma symptoms declined over time for the total sample, t(223) = 9.37, p < .001, d = 0.63. Greater divine spiritual struggles (β = 0.10, t[219] = 1.98, p = .049, sr 2  = 0.02) and self-blame for the abuse (β = 0.11, t[219] = 2.03, p = .044, sr 2  = 0.02) at the screening assessment were associated with higher levels of trauma symptoms at the beginning of treatment, controlling for sex, trauma symptoms and age at the screening assessment., Conclusions: Assessing adolescents' divine spiritual struggles and self-blame for sexual abuse may be important in triage and treatment planning for youth who have experienced sexual abuse., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest None., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Background: Children exposed political violence deploy resources to maintain functioning, hope and life satisfaction., Objective: We sought to explore whether or not children promote hope and life satisfaction trough agency, psychological difficulties, potentially traumatic experiences and symptoms in Palestine., Participants and Setting: 965 children (494 males and 471 females) in multiple geographical contexts, and areas were involved., Methods: We administered the War Child Agency Assessment Scale, Child Hope Scale, Multilevel Students'Life Satisfaction Scale-Bref, the Strength and difficulties scale, the Child Revised Impact of events Scale, and Trauma Checklist, and performed regression analysis; hope and life satisfaction were dependent and agency, strength and difficulties, trauma symptoms and traumatic events independent variables., Results: Specific forms of agency predicted life satisfaction (β = 0.219; ** p < .01, social agency; β = 0.11; ** p < .01, with agency in education) and hope (β = 0.07; ** p < .05, agency on free movement), while mental difficulties (conduct problems, β = -0.09; ** p < .01; hyperactivity, β = -0.07; ** p < .05; β = -0.15; ** p < .01 with life satisfaction) (conduct problems, β = -0.06; ** p < .05, and difficulties in pro-social behaviour, β = -0.21; ** p < .01 with hope), traumatic events (β = -0.16; ** p < .01, with life satisfaction; β = -0.15; ** p < .01, with hope) and trauma symptoms (β = -0.09; ** p < .05, with hope) were negatively associated with the dependents variables., Conclusions: We found a positive role of social, educational, and freedom of movement agentic behaviours in fostering hope and life satisfaction., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors have declared that they have no competing or potential conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Background: Through Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), the gold standard in children's trauma treatment, caregivers participate in sessions parallel to the child. However, much of the research examining the impact of this caregiver involvement has focused on biological or relative caregivers, despite the high prevalence of trauma and trauma symptoms among youth in foster care and high rates of parenting stress among foster/adoptive caregivers., Objective: The current study examined differences among relative and foster/adoptive caregivers' levels of parenting stress throughout the course of TF-CBT and how these differences were associated with child trauma symptoms throughout treatment., Participants and Setting: Participants were 130 caregiver-child dyads (84 = foster/adoptive; 46 = biological/relative) who completed TF-CBT in either an academic-based clinic or an associated mental health agency. Providing clinicians were trained in TF-CBT, participated in case consultation, and received ongoing clinical supervision., Methods: Children and caregivers completed baseline measures prior to beginning treatment and termination measures at the completion of treatment., Results: Prior to treatment, foster/adoptive caregivers reported greater dysfunction in their parent-child interactions and relative caregivers reported greater personal stress. These differences were not seen at treatment termination, and significant reductions in child trauma symptoms and caregiver parenting stress were evidenced from pre to post treatment. Significant covariation between child trauma symptoms and relative caregiver parenting stress at termination was also found., Conclusions: There were different profiles of parenting stress for relative versus foster/adoptive caregivers, but treatment completion attenuated group differences in parenting stress over the course of treatment., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest None., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: Youth who have experienced sexual abuse sometimes also experience non-supportive responses, such as accusations of lying, from people in their family and social environment. Little is known about how such responses from different sources (caregivers, friends, other adults) correlate with one another and operate together in the prediction of youth problematic thinking, such as self-blame, and trauma symptoms., Objective: To better understand how non-supportive responses from different sources relate to one another and contribute to youth problems following sexual abuse., Participants and Setting: Participants were 475 youths (M age  = 13.57, SD = 1.77) brought to a children's advocacy center in the southern United States., Methods: Participants completed measures of non-supportive responses from caregivers, friends, and other adults. They also completed measures of abuse-specific self-blame and trauma symptoms., Results: Non-supportive responses from caregivers, friends, and other adults correlated with each other and with abuse-specific self-blame and trauma symptoms (correlations ranged from 0.12 to 0.18; all p values <.001). Results of regression analyses indicated that only non-supportive responses from caregivers contributed independently to abuse-specific self-blame, whereas non-supportive responses from caregivers and friends contributed to trauma symptoms., Conclusions: In the aftermath of sexual abuse, non-supportive responses from caregivers and friends relate to youth trauma symptoms. Assessing non-supportive responses broadly across the social network can be useful in understanding youth adjustment following sexual abuse., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest None., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: Placement stability while in foster care has important implications for children's permanency and well-being. Though a majority of youth have adequate placement stability while in foster care, a substantial minority experience multiple moves during their time in care. Research on correlates of placement instability has demonstrated a relationship between externalizing behaviors and placement instability. Likewise, evidence suggests higher levels of trauma are associated with increased externalizing behaviors. However, few studies have examined the relationship between trauma symptoms and placement instability., Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether children with clinically significant trauma symptoms had higher odds of placement instability., Participants and Setting: Administrative data collected as a part of a summative evaluation for a federally-funded trauma III grant project were used. The sample included 1,668 children ages 5 and older who entered foster care during a 30-month period in a Midwestern state and completed a self-reported trauma screen within 120 days of entering care., Methods: Hierarchical logistic regression was conducted to examine the contributions of trauma symptoms scores to placement instability, above and beyond demographic characteristics and case characteristics., Results: Results from the final analytic model, which controlled for demographic and case characteristics, showed that children with clinically significant trauma symptoms (i.e., scores ≥19) had 46% higher odds of experiencing placement instability (OR = 1.46, 95% CIs [1.16, 1.82], p =  .001). Findings support the need to screen for and treat trauma symptomology among youth in foster care., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: There is increasing interest in routine screening for Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) to help identify high-risk children who would benefit from interventions. However, there has not yet been sufficient research concerning which particular set of ACEs would be most predictive as a potential screening tool., Objective: This study compared 40 Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), covering 11 different conceptual domains, in their ability to predict trauma symptoms in childhood., Participants and Setting: The current study uses pooled data from three National Surveys of Children's Exposure to Violence (NatSCEV) conducted in 2008, 2011, and 2014. Each survey collected information on children aged one month to 17 years., Methods: Samples were obtained from a mix of random digit dialing and address based sampling methods. Telephone interviews were conducted with children 10 years and older and with caregivers, if the randomly selected child was under age 10., Results and Conclusion: A different set of 15 items best predicted trauma symptoms for younger (2-9-year-old) compared to older (10-17-year-old) youth. Some conventional ACEs, like physical and emotional abuse, proved important for both age groups. However, family-related factors were more predictive for younger children, while community and peer violence exposures were more predictive for older children. Our new proposed measures explained substantially more variance in subsequent trauma symptoms than did the original ACE measure (R 2  = .31 vs .18 for 2-9 year olds; R 2  = .43 vs .26 for 10-17 year olds; p < .001 for all) and identified a larger percentage of children with high levels of trauma., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The trauma symptoms of child sexual abuse (CSA) survivors don't end with the abuse, or even with the advent of adulthood. Instead, these symptoms can persist into all the realms of a survivor's life, including education, which sets the foundation for career advancement. This retrospective study of adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse (n=260) examined the relationships between trauma symptoms, dissociation, dissociative amnesia, anxiety, depression, sleep problems and higher education attainment. The purpose of this study was to determine if these factors are associated with higher education completion for childhood sexual abuse (CSA) survivors. Linear regressions and ANOVAs suggest that many of these variables are significantly associated with survivors' educational trajectory, and multiple linear regressions show that trauma symptoms (as measured by the Trauma Symptom Checklist-40), caregivers' education levels, and age at onset of abuse are significant predictors of decreased education levels. This information can provide insight into additional risk and protective factors for CSA survivors in order to enhance acute and long-term management of trauma symptoms to increase levels ofattainment of higher education., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

This study compares children and youth who have experienced lifetime war-related parental absence or deployment with those having no such history on a variety of victimization types, non-victimization adversity, trauma symptoms, and delinquency; and assesses whether cumulative adversity and victimization help to explain elevated emotional and behavioral problems among children of parents who have experienced war-related absence or deployment. The National Surveys of Children's Exposure to Violence (NatSCEV) are comprised of three cross-sectional telephone surveys conducted in 2008, 2011, and 2014. Data were collected on the experiences of children aged one month to seventeen years. In each survey, interviews were conducted with youth 10-17 years old and with caregivers of children 0-9 years old. The analyses use pooled data from all three U.S. nationally-representative samples (total sample size of 13,052). Lifetime parental war-related absence or deployment was a marker for elevated childhood exposure to a wide array of victimization and adversity types. Cumulative past year exposure to multiple forms of victimization and adversity fully explained elevated trauma symptoms and delinquency in this population of children. Given the breadth of victimization and adversity risk, children with histories of parental war-related absence or deployment, as well as their families, represent important target groups for broad-based prevention and interventions to reduce exposure and ameliorate consequences when it does occur., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)