Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota, United States.
Mt. Hope Family Center, University of Rochester, United States.
Child Abuse Negl. 2020 Mar;101:104323. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2019.104323. Epub 2020 Jan 11.
Child maltreatment has been repeatedly linked to internalizing and externalizing disorders, though few studies have examined the mechanisms of this pathway. Furthermore, children cope with difficult demands from their environments in a variety of ways, using emotion-focused (e.g., crying and verbal aggression), avoidant (e.g., disengaging), or problem-focused (e.g., seeking help from an adult) strategies.
The current investigation examined if the coping strategies children employ when faced with everyday environmental stresses are a potential mechanism in the pathway between child maltreatment and internalizing and externalizing symptoms.
Participants included 198 maltreated and 222 non-maltreated children ages 4-12 who attended a day summer camp for 2 consecutive years.
The study utilized a longitudinal design by following the children at two time points to determine if coping at Time 1 mediated the pathway between maltreatment and internalizing and externalizing symptoms at Time 2 (measured one year later).
Results from path analyses showed that maltreatment was associated with increased emotion-focused (b = .20, SE = .05, p < .001) and decreased problem-focused coping (b = -.25, SE = .05, p < .001). Results also indicated that emotion-focused coping represents a mechanism by which maltreated children are at increased risk for externalizing behaviors (with an indirect effect estimate of 0.023, SE = 0.053; CI: 0.004, 0.23).
The results highlight the impact maltreatment can have on coping strategies and that these strategies can play an important role in the development of psychopathology. This has important implications for clinicians, who could integrate reducing emotion-focused coping into intervention efforts for maltreated children.
儿童虐待与内化和外化障碍反复相关，尽管很少有研究检验这一途径的机制。此外，儿童以多种方式应对来自环境的困难要求，使用情绪聚焦（例如，哭泣和言语攻击）、回避（例如，脱离）或问题聚焦（例如，向成年人寻求帮助）策略。
本研究考察了儿童在面对日常环境压力时所采用的应对策略是否是儿童虐待与内化和外化症状之间关系的潜在机制。
参与者包括 198 名受虐待和 222 名非受虐待的 4-12 岁儿童，他们连续两年参加了一个日间夏令营。
该研究采用纵向设计，通过在两个时间点跟踪儿童来确定应对策略是否在第一时间介导了虐待与第二年（一年后）内化和外化症状之间的关系。
路径分析的结果表明，虐待与情绪聚焦应对（b =.20，SE =.05，p <.001）增加和问题聚焦应对（b = -.25，SE =.05，p <.001）减少有关。结果还表明，情绪聚焦应对是受虐待儿童发生外化行为风险增加的一个机制（间接效应估计值为 0.023，SE =.053；CI：0.004，0.23）。
结果强调了虐待对应对策略的影响，以及这些策略在心理病理学发展中的重要作用。这对临床医生具有重要意义，他们可以将减少情绪聚焦应对纳入受虐待儿童的干预努力中。
