The role of maltreatment in the development of coping strategies

Abstract

Child maltreatment leads to deleterious effects in virtually every developmental domain, including cognitive, psychological, and behavioral functioning. Although difficulties with coping have been identified as contributing to these effects, less attention has been paid to the precise nature of maltreated children's coping difficulties, particularly in terms of the strategies they use to cope with negative emotions and how these strategies vary with age. We asked maltreated (n = 195) and comparison (n = 103) 10 to 17 year olds to describe emotional experiences and what strategies they used to cope with those emotions. Maltreated adolescents reported using more disengagement and antisocial strategies than did comparison adolescents. Differences between maltreated and comparison adolescents were consistent across age. Results have important implications for treatment and intervention efforts designed to improve coping strategies among vulnerable maltreated populations.

Early adversity and children's emotion regulation: Differential roles of parent emotion regulation and adversity exposure

“…Specifically, studies are needed to examine the types of emotion regulation strategies that adversity-exposed children use and how those strategies are differentially associated with parent socialization, deprivation, and threat. Previous studies indicate that adversity-exposed children may rely on certain emotion regulation strategies (e.g., disengagement, avoidance) more so than nonexposed children (Boyes et al, 2016; Epstein-Ngo et al, 2013; Maughan & Cicchetti, 2002; Milojevich et al, 2018; Robinson et al, 2009). The findings of the present study should be extended to specific forms of emotion regulation.…”

“…Findings on emotion regulation in children exposed to adversity are almost universally consistent, with studies generally concluding that regardless of age, gender, or ethnicity, adversity-exposed children have poorer emotion regulation relative to nonexposed children (Chang, Schwartz, Dodge, & McBride-Chang, 2003; Ellis, Alisic, Reiss, Dishion, & Fisher, 2014; Hébert, Langevin, & Oussaïd, 2018; Kim & Cicchetti, 2009, 2010; Kim-Spoon, Cicchetti, & Rogosch, 2013; Maughan & Cicchetti, 2002; Milojevich, Levine, Cathcart, & Quas, 2018; Romens & Pollak, 2012; Shields & Cicchetti, 1998; Shields, Cicchetti, & Ryan, 1994; Thabet, Tischler, & Vostanis, 2004). Moreover, in studies that have measured children's use of specific emotion regulation strategies, findings indicate that adversity-exposed children tend to use maladaptive regulation strategies, such as disengagement, expressive suppression, and rumination, more frequently and use effective strategies, including cognitive reappraisal, less often than nonexposed children (Boyes, Hasking, & Martin, 2016; Epstein-Ngo, Maurizi, Bregman, & Ceballo, 2013; Maughan & Cicchetti, 2002; Milojevich et al, 2018; Robinson et al, 2009). To date, most studies on early adversity exposure and emotion regulation have examined children exposed to maltreatment, with less research considering other types of adversity or comparing across exposure types.…”

“…To date, most studies on early adversity exposure and emotion regulation have examined children exposed to maltreatment, with less research considering other types of adversity or comparing across exposure types. Within child maltreatment, studies often combine across subtypes (e.g., physical abuse, neglect) to create a single maltreated sample, which is then compared to a nonmaltreated comparison sample of matched controls (Alink, Cicchetti, Kim, & Rogosch, 2009; Kim-Spoon et al, 2013; Milojevich et al, 2018; Shields et al, 1994). As such, little is known about the relative contribution of various forms of adversity exposure to children's emotion regulation or the impact of adjacent variables such as parent emotion socialization.…”

Deprivation and threat, emotion dysregulation, and psychopathology: Concurrent and longitudinal associations

“…Of particular interest to clinicians are malleable mechanisms that could serve as targets for interventions. One such mechanism that is malleable (Chambers, Gullone, & Allen, 2009; Collins, Woolfson, & Durkin, 2014) and linked with both psychopathology (Cline et al, 2015; D'Avanzato, Joormann, Siemer, & Gotlib, 2013; Silk, Steinberg, & Morris, 2003; Sontag & Graber, 2010) and maltreatment exposure (Cicchetti & Rogosch, 2009; Kim & Cicchetti, 2010; Maughan & Cicchetti, 2002; Milojevich, Levine, Cathcart, & Quas, 2018; Perlman, Dawson, Dardis, Egan, & Anderson, 2016; Romens & Pollak, 2012; Shields & Cicchetti, 1998) is emotion regulation. Traditionally, emotion regulation has been defined as the “internal and external processes involved in initiating, maintaining, and modulating the occurrence, intensity, and expression of emotions” (Thompson, 1994, p. 27).…”

Using Positive Emotion Training With Maltreated Youths to Reduce Anger Bias and Physical Aggression

“…Among the many significant consequences of child maltreatment is an impaired ability to understand and respond to others’ emotions (Norman et al, 2012; Springer, Sheridan, Kuo, & Carnes, 2007; Teicher & Sampson, 2016; Widom, 2017; Young & Widom, 2014), particularly anger (Kim & Cicchetti, 2010; Milojevich, Levine, Cathcart, & Quas, 2018; Pollak, 2015). Maltreated children tend to be hypervigilant to cues of anger and hostility (Dodge, 2006; Pollak, Cicchetti, Hornung, & Reed, 2000; Pollak & Kistler, 2002).…”