< Back to previous page

Project

Environmental Adversity and Complex Trauma in at-risk adolescents: From Identification of Risk and Protective Factors to Implications for Intervention

A vast majority of children and adolescents in Peru are exposed to early adversity, including both environmental adversity (EA), operationalized as exposure to violence in the neighborhood, school, and media, and complex trauma (CT), defined as repeated experiences of abuse and neglect within a caregiving context. These early negative life experiences may have long-lasting effects on the cognitive, physical, social, and psychological development of children. The current study aims to explore the effects of EA and CT among Peruvian adolescents. Furthermore, it aims to identify risk and protective factors that may inform the development of evidence-based interventions in Lima, Peru. Chapter 1 provides the theoretical background to the five studies presented in this Ph.D.

Chapter 2 presents a psychometric approach to EA and CT in a Spanish-speaking, Latin-American context. This chapter has a strong focus on quantitative measurement techniques and aims to translate, adapt, and validate questionnaires pertaining to the assessment of EA, CT, and key psychological variables used in this Ph.D. study, in order to foster research on these concepts in Spanish speaking individuals. Specifically, the psychometric properties of 15 instruments are assessed through a pilot study, and two cross-sectional psychometric articles are presented.

Chapter 3 reports results on the prevalence of EA and CT and their impact on internalizing and externalizing symptoms in a sample of adolescents (N = 218) from a severely disadvantaged district of Lima, Peru. Results show that 39% of the adolescents had suffered at least one type of moderate to severe trauma, and these negative events had a significant effect on the development of both internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Children who had experienced CT were at least two times more likely to develop internalizing or externalizing symptoms in the clinical range. Furthermore, exposure to community violence had a significant effect on symptoms, above and beyond the impact of CT, indicating the degree of environmental adversity in this setting, and the need for structural interventions aimed at changing this adverse context.

 

Chapter 4 and 5, in turn, focus on the identification of risk and protective factors that may inform the development of evidence-based interventions in young people at risk in Lima, Peru. Specifically, in two longitudinal studies, different risk and protective factors related to parent and peer attachment are explored. Due to the fact that boys had more externalizing symptoms such as rule-breaking and aggressive behaviors, and the link of such behaviors with potential engagement in further criminal activities, in Chapter 4 we focus on the identification of protective factors among boys (N = 302), showing that mother-son attachment plays an important role in buffering the impact of environmental adversity. In Chapter 5, we report evidence for the moderating role of peer support in the relationship between early adversity and internalizing and externalizing symptoms in boys and girls (N = 644).

 

Chapter 6 presents a general summary and a discussion of the implications for prevention and intervention of the main findings reported in this study. Specifically, it is argued that the series of studies conducted in the context of this Ph.D. not only contribute to our extant knowledge of the mental health consequences of early adversity in adolescents growing up in adverse circumstances in Lima, Peru, but also establish a foundation for the future development of science-based models of psychosocial prevention and intervention in this vulnerable population. I also discuss directions for future research and limitations of the reported studies.

 

 

 

Date:1 Sep 2014 →  7 May 2018
Keywords:early adversity, childhood trauma, community violence
Disciplines:Biological and physiological psychology, General psychology, Other psychology and cognitive sciences
Project type:PhD project