Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, 3333 Burnet Avenue, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA.
Child Abuse Negl. 2012 Feb;36(2):118-26. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2011.09.012. Epub 2012 Mar 6.
Not every adolescent exposed to child maltreatment develops symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), emphasizing the need to identify variables that explain how some maltreated children come to develop these symptoms. This study tested whether a set of variables, respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and cortisol reactivity as well as experiential avoidance, explained the relationship between child maltreatment and PTSD symptoms.
Adolescent females (N=110; n=51 maltreated) 14-19 years of age completed interviews, questionnaires, and a stressor paradigm. A multiple mediator model was used to assess the effect for the set of variables while identifying specific indirect effects for each variable.
Results indicated that the set of variables mediated the relationship between child maltreatment and PTSD symptoms. However, only experiential avoidance contributed significantly to this effect when simultaneously estimating all other variables. The indirect effect for experiential avoidance was also significantly stronger than the effects of RSA and cortisol reactivity.
Data support the examination of experiential avoidance in understanding how adolescents who have been maltreated develop PTSD symptoms with implications for prevention and intervention.
并非每个遭受儿童虐待的青少年都会出现创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）症状，这强调了需要确定可解释为何一些受虐待儿童会出现这些症状的变量。本研究检验了一组变量（呼吸窦性心律失常（RSA）和皮质醇反应以及经验性回避）是否可以解释儿童虐待与 PTSD 症状之间的关系。
14-19 岁的青春期女性（N=110；n=51 名受虐待）完成了访谈、问卷调查和应激源范式。使用多重中介模型来评估变量集的效果，同时确定每个变量的特定间接效果。
结果表明，该组变量中介了儿童虐待与 PTSD 症状之间的关系。然而，当同时估计所有其他变量时，仅经验性回避对这种影响有显著贡献。经验性回避的间接效应也明显强于 RSA 和皮质醇反应的效应。
数据支持在理解经历过虐待的青少年如何发展 PTSD 症状时，对经验性回避的检查，这对预防和干预具有意义。
