RT Article
T1 Prevalence of Exposure to Complex Trauma and Community Violence and Their Associations With Internalizing and Externalizing Symptoms
JF Journal of interpersonal violence
VO 36
IS 1/2
SP 843
OP 861
A1 Yearwood, Karen
A2 Vliegen, Nicole
A2 Chau, Cecilia
A2 Corveleyn, Jozef
A2 Luyten, Patrick
LA English
YR 2021
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1747364789
AB Studies about trauma often tend to focus on abuse and neglect. However important, these studies may neglect the importance of the broader community context that is often associated with trauma, and complex trauma (CT) in particular. This study aimed to investigate the effects of CT (defined in terms of experiencing abuse and/or neglect occurring in the context of relationships with caregivers), and of broader environmental adversity (i.e., exposure to community violence), in a sample of adolescents (N = 218) from a severely disadvantaged district of Lima, Peru. The study had two aims: (a) to assess the prevalence of CT and its associations with internalizing and externalizing symptoms in these adolescents and (b) to investigate the associations between community violence and both internalizing and externalizing symptoms over and above the effects of CT. In total, 39.4% of the adolescents reported at least one type of moderate to severe trauma. There was a clear association between CT and both internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Ordinal logistic regressions showed that children who were exposed to one or more traumatic experiences were more likely to score within a higher range of internalizing and externalizing symptoms than children with no history of trauma. Finally, exposure to community violence was an important predictor of symptomatology beyond the effects of CT.
K1 trauma assessment
K1 community violence
K1 early adversity
K1 complex trauma
K1 Childhood Trauma Questionnaire
DO 10.1177/0886260517731788