Early-adult correlates of maltreatment in girls with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: Increased risk for internalizing symptoms and suicidality

Abstract

We examined whether maltreatment experienced in childhood and/or adolescence prospectively predicts young adult functioning in a diverse and well-characterized sample of females with childhood-diagnosed attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (N = 140). Participants were part of a longitudinal study and carefully evaluated in childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood (Mage = 9.6, 14.3, and 19.7 years, respectively), with high retention rates across time. A thorough review of multisource data reliably established maltreatment status for each participant (Mκ = 0.78). Thirty-two (22.9%) participants experienced at least one maltreatment type (physical abuse, sexual abuse, or neglect). Criterion variables included a broad array of young adult measures of functioning gleaned from multiple-source, multiple-informant instruments. With stringent statistical control of demographic, prenatal, and family status characteristics as well as baseline levels of the criterion variable in question, maltreated participants were significantly more impaired than nonmaltreated participants with respect to self-harm (suicide attempts), internalizing symptomatology (anxiety and depression), eating disorder symptomatology, and well-being (lower overall self-worth). Effect sizes were medium. Comprising the first longitudinal evidence linking maltreatment with key young adult life impairments among a carefully diagnosed and followed sample of females with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, these findings underscore the clinical importance of trauma experiences within this population.

Childhood Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Predicts Intimate Partner Victimization in Young Women

“…Second, the Hot Sheet is an interviewer/clinician post-interview summary of any violence, particularly that which posed a threat to the personal safety of the participant, that participants may have reported. In Waves 1 and 2, the Hot Sheet was utilized by clinicians to document instances of child abuse (e.g., Briscoe-Smith & Hinshaw, 2006; Guendelman et al, in press). Third, the 10-Year Family Information Packet ( FIP ; Wave 3) is a parent- and participant-reported, comprehensive, year-by-year information sheet regarding significant life events, including participants’ relationship status, between Waves 2 and 3.…”

“…; Wechsler, 1991), administered at Wave 1. Childhood maltreatment status ( maltreatment ) was coded for presence or absence of any exposure to physical, sexual, or verbal/psychological maltreatment by Wave 1 (for details regarding the coding of this variable, see Guendelman et al, in press). Hence, nine sociodemographic, cognitive, and psychiatric covariates were considered: (1) age ; (2) SES ; (3) race/ethnicity ; (4) adopted/foster status; (5) single parent status (6) Anx/Dep ; (7) ODD/CD ; (8) FSIQ ; and (9) maltreatment .…”

“…First, they are more likely to have experienced violence and maltreatment in their family of origin (Briscoe-Smith & Hinshaw, 2006; Fuller-Thomson, Mehta, & Valeo, 2014; Guendelman, Owens, Galan, Gard, & Hinshaw, in press), which are well-documented risk factors for subsequent IPV (Tjaden & Thoennes, 2000; Whitfield, Anda, Dube, & Felitti, 2003). Second, other shared risk factors for women with childhood ADHD and women exposed to IPV include coming from a single-parent household (Hjern, Weitoft, & Lindblad, 2009; Moffitt & Caspi, 1999), experiencing chaotic and conflictual family relations (CDC, 2014; Moffitt & Caspi, 1999), and having lower educational achievement and greater rates of school dropout (Loe & Feldman, 2007).…”

“… 1 The Guendelman et al (in press) investigation focused almost exclusively on maltreatment in the ADHD sample only, and examined outcomes related to maltreatment in Waves 1 and 2 combined. …”

Bio-behavioral synchrony promotes the development of conceptualized emotions

“…Moreover, aberrant social experience among abused children is associated with children’s perceptions of emotion expressions, such as higher sensitivity to anger cues *[59]. Importantly, lack of early emotion socialization can be remediated in part by later caregiver use of emotion language (i.e., introduced to adopted children at 3 years of age) [60], suggesting some flexibility in the ideal developmental trajectory, and marking the importance of childhood experience in emotion development.…”