Positive Caregiving Styles Attenuating Effects of Cumulative Trauma Among Youth Who Commit Sexual Crimes

Abstract

Among youth who commit sexual crimes, childhood trauma experiences have been linked to a host of outcomes including trauma symptom expression. Furthermore, research has begun assessing differential rates of cumulative adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) between youth who commit sexual and non-sexual crimes. Yet, few studies have comparatively examined rates of cumulative traumatic events using more robust measures of adversity. There is scant research on outcomes associated cumulative trauma among youth who commit sexual crimes including linkages to trauma symptoms and how positive parenting styles (PCSs) can attenuate in this relationship. This study aims to compare cumulative trauma experiences between youth who commit sexual ( n = 112) and non-sexual crimes ( n = 224). Among youth who commit sexual crimes, we test how PCSs mitigate or moderate the effects of cumulative trauma on trauma symptoms. Results from independent samples t-tests revealed significant group differences on singular and cumulative traumatic experiences, and trauma symptomatology, where youth who commit sexual crimes had higher rates of all. Stepwise linear regressions revealed mitigating effects of maternal PCSs and tests of moderation revealed main and interaction effects, where intermediate positive maternal caregiving styles for youth with higher cumulative trauma were associated with greater trauma symptomatology. Implications and limitations are discussed.

Families, Mental Health, and Delinquency: Testing Sexual Crime Typologies of Youth Who Sexually Harm

“…Based on these findings, assisting parents/ caregivers in establishing and building strong attachment patterns while developing positive parenting skills may reduce the risk of sexually harmful behavior by youth. This underscores the recent research showing that attachment to mother (Brown et al, 2021) and positive parenting styles (Yoder et al, 2020) play an important role in the sequelae of childhood trauma and sexual offending. It also aligns with research showing that treatment for YSH should expand beyond the youth and include the family whenever possible (Yoder & Brown, 2015;.…”

“…Others have evaluated how attachment and other relational interactions and trauma events can be experienced concurrently. For example, Yoder and colleagues (2020) found that adverse (harsh and inconsistent) maternal relational experiences were associated with insecure attachment and traumatic events; however, trauma experiences did not mediate the relationship between maternal relations and attachment styles. Moreover, much of the variance in insecure attachment was explained by maternal relational experiences.…”

Symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress and Sexual Concerns: The Intermediary Effects of Executive Functioning on Profiles of Youth Who Have Sexually Harmed

“…This finding is not what we expected, but perhaps PTS symptoms may be effectually diminished when introducing indicators with greater empirical support for outcomes of interest, namely sexual offending profiles. Perhaps this is because YSH sometimes have histories marked by extreme sexual abuse trauma (Seto & Lalumière, 2010; Yoder et al, 2020a) and therefore experience residual trauma-related sexual preoccupation. Residual sexual concerns have been identified as a key target mechanism underlying trauma-informed service delivery (Cohen et al, 2004).…”

“…Researchers found significant associations between physical, sexual, and emotional abuse and neglect on all features of executive dysfunction among YSH represented by both behavioral regulation (i.e., inhibitions, working memory, behavioral shift, and emotional control) and metacognition indexes (i.e., cognitive shift, organization of material, and task completion; Yoder et al, 2019). In a different study, researchers found that executive functioning mediated the relationship between sexual abuse victimization and sexual violence (Yoder et al, 2020a). In that same study, when controlling for physical abuse and domestic adversity, sexual victimization contributed to deficits in metacognition.…”

Cascading Effects of Cumulative Trauma: Callous Traits among Justice Involved Youth

“…One common result of cumulative trauma exposure is trauma symptomatology (Aebi et al, 2015), as trauma exposure can increase the likelihood of exhibiting symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD; Moore et al, 2013). Specifically, cumulative trauma can lead to an increase in trauma symptomatology (Brown et al, 2021; Finkelhor et al, 2007; Yoder et al, 2020). Particular doses and types of trauma exposure can yield differential symptomatology expression (Bennett et al, 2016); youth who experienced more than one type of abuse were more than twice as likely to have multiple mental health disorders, including PTSD (King et al, 2011).…”