Department of Psychology, University of California, 1285 Franz Hall, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
Department of Psychology, University of California, 1285 Franz Hall, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
Child Abuse Negl. 2018 Feb;76:149-159. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2017.10.018. Epub 2017 Nov 3.
Children in foster care frequently have histories of physical/sexual abuse and neglect, increasing their risk for externalizing behaviors (EB; e.g., aggression). According to the differential susceptibility theory, children with reactive temperaments (e.g., negative emotionality) may be particularly vulnerable to early maltreatment, but may also benefit the most from environmental enrichment such as family cohesion. In a high-risk longitudinal sample of 82 children adopted from foster care in Los Angeles County from 1996 and 2001, we examined predictions of EB from childhood to adolescence/young adulthood from temperament, preadoption maltreatment, and adoptive family cohesion. Overall, results from generalized linear models and generalized estimating equations (GEE) did not support differential susceptibility theory - specifically, youth with early reactive temperament did not exhibit heightened sensitivity to maltreatment nor to later adoptive family cohesion. Instead, reactive temperament was associated with higher EB at initial adoptive placement and escalating EB across childhood, controlling for age, gender, race-ethnicity, preadoption maltreatment, and adoptive family cohesion. Preadoption maltreatment history was unrelated to baseline EB, although sexual abuse history predicted escalating childhood EB post-adoption, whereas exposure to family violence (e.g., domestic violence) inversely predicted EB over time. By late adolescence/young adulthood 11-15 years post-adoption, rates of arrest and substance use in this sample were relatively comparable to normative populations of youth, although older age of adoption predicted more substance use in late adolescence/young adulthood. Findings highlight early reactive temperament and preadoption maltreatment as important risk factors to target for ameliorating patterns of EB growth in the first few years of adoption.
寄养儿童经常有身体/性虐待和忽视的历史，这增加了他们出现外化行为（EB；例如，攻击性）的风险。根据易感性差异理论，具有反应性气质（例如，负性情绪）的儿童可能特别容易受到早期虐待的影响，但也可能从家庭凝聚力等环境丰富中受益最多。在洛杉矶县从 1996 年到 2001 年从寄养家庭收养的 82 名高风险纵向样本中，我们从气质、领养前虐待和收养家庭凝聚力方面研究了从儿童期到青少年/成年早期的 EB 预测。总体而言，广义线性模型和广义估计方程（GEE）的结果不支持易感性差异理论——具体来说，具有早期反应性气质的青少年并没有表现出对虐待和后来的收养家庭凝聚力的敏感性增加。相反，反应性气质与初始收养安置时的 EB 较高以及整个儿童期的 EB 不断上升有关，控制了年龄、性别、种族-民族、领养前虐待和收养家庭凝聚力。领养前虐待史与基线 EB 无关，尽管性虐待史预测了领养后的儿童期 EB 不断上升，而家庭暴力（例如，家庭暴力）的暴露则随着时间的推移预测 EB 下降。在收养后 11-15 年的青少年/成年早期，该样本的逮捕率和物质使用率与青年的正常人群相当，尽管收养年龄较大预示着青少年晚期/成年早期的物质使用较多。研究结果强调了早期反应性气质和领养前虐待作为重要的风险因素，以改善收养头几年 EB 增长的模式。
