Publications by Year: 2016

2016
Tibu, F., Sheridan, M. A., McLaughlin, K. A., Nelson, C. A., Fox, N. A., & Zeanah, C. H. (2016). Reductions in working memory mediate the link between early institutional rearing and symptoms of ADHD at 12 years. . Frontiers in Psychology , 24 (1850), 1-9.Abstract
Children who are raised in institutions show severe delays across multiple domains of development and high levels of psychopathology, including attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Low performance in executive functions (EFs) are also common in institutionally reared children and often do not remediate following improvements in the caregiving environment. ADHD symptomatology also remains elevated even after children are removed from institutional care and placed in families. We investigate whether poor EF is a mechanism explaining elevated rates of ADHD in children reared in institutional settings in the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP). In the current study, we examine the potentially mediating role of poor EF in the association between institutionalization and symptoms of ADHD at age 12 years. A total of 107 children were assessed with the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB) on working memory, set-shifting and planning. We also obtained concurrent teacher reports on their levels of ADHD symptoms (inattention and impulsivity separately). Institutionalization strongly predicted elevations in symptoms of inattention and impulsivity at age 12 years (ps < 0.01). Indices of working memory and planning were also associated with ADHD after controlling for potential confounders (ps < 0.03). Mediation analyses revealed that poor working memory performance mediated the link between exposure to early institutionalization and higher scores of both inattention and impulsivity. These results replicate and extend the findings that we reported in the BEIP sample at age 8 years. Together, they suggest that compromised working memory is a key mechanism that continues to explain the strikingly high levels of ADHD in late childhood among children institutionalized in early life. Interventions targeting working memory may help to prevent ADHD among children exposed to institutional care.
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Heleniak, C., Jenness, J. L., McCauley, E., Van der Stoep, A., & McLaughlin, K. A. (2016). Trauma exposure and disruptions in emotion regulation: A transdiagnostic pathway to adolescent internalizing and externalizing psychopathology. Cognitive Therapy and Research , 40, 394-415. Publisher's VersionAbstract
Child maltreatment is a robust risk factor for internalizing and externalizing psychopathology in children and adolescents. We examined the role of disruptions in emotion regulation processes as a developmental mechanism linking child maltreatment to the onset of multiple forms of psychopathology in adolescents. Specifically, we examined whether child maltreatment was associated with emotional reactivity and maladaptive cognitive and behavioral responses to distress, including rumination and impulsive behaviors, in two separate samples. We additionally investigated whether each of these components of emotion regulation were associated with internalizing and externalizing psychopathology and mediated the association between child maltreatment and psychopathology. Study 1 included a sample of 167 adolescents recruited based on exposure to physical, sexual, or emotional abuse. Study 2 included a sample of 439 adolescents in a community-based cohort study followed prospectively for 5 years. In both samples, child maltreatment was associated with higher levels of internalizing psychopathology, elevated emotional reactivity, and greater habitual engagement in rumination and impulsive responses to distress. In Study 2, emotional reactivity and maladaptive responses to distress mediated the association between child maltreatment and both internalizing and externalizing psychopathology. These findings provide converging evidence for the role of emotion regulation deficits as a transdiagnostic developmental pathway linking child maltreatment with multiple forms of psychopathology.
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Benjet, C., Bromet, E., Karam, E. G., Kessler, R. C., McLaughlin, K. A., Ruscio, A. M., Shahly, V., et al. (2016). The epidemiology of traumatic event exposure worldwide: results from the World Mental Health Survey Consortium. Psychological Medicine , 46 (2), 327–343.Abstract
BACKGROUND: Considerable research has documented that exposure to traumatic events has negative effects on physical and mental health. Much less research has examined the predictors of traumatic event exposure. Increased understanding of risk factors for exposure to traumatic events could be of considerable value in targeting preventive interventions and anticipating service needs. METHOD: General population surveys in 24 countries with a combined sample of 68 894 adult respondents across six continents assessed exposure to 29 traumatic event types. Differences in prevalence were examined with cross-tabulations. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted to determine whether traumatic event types clustered into interpretable factors. Survival analysis was carried out to examine associations of sociodemographic characteristics and prior traumatic events with subsequent exposure. RESULTS: Over 70% of respondents reported a traumatic event; 30.5% were exposed to four or more. Five types - witnessing death or serious injury, the unexpected death of a loved one, being mugged, being in a life-threatening automobile accident, and experiencing a life-threatening illness or injury - accounted for over half of all exposures. Exposure varied by country, sociodemographics and history of prior traumatic events. Being married was the most consistent protective factor. Exposure to interpersonal violence had the strongest associations with subsequent traumatic events. CONCLUSIONS: Given the near ubiquity of exposure, limited resources may best be dedicated to those that are more likely to be further exposed such as victims of interpersonal violence. Identifying mechanisms that account for the associations of prior interpersonal violence with subsequent trauma is critical to develop interventions to prevent revictimization.
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Tibu, F., Sheridan, M. A., McLaughlin, K. A., Nelson, C. A., Fox, N. A., & Zeanah, C. H. (2016). Disruptions of working memory and inhibition mediate the association between exposure to institutionalization and symptoms of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Psychological Medicine , 46 (3), 529–541. Publisher's VersionAbstract
Background Young children raised in institutions are exposed to extreme psychosocial deprivation that is associated with elevated risk for psychopathology and other adverse developmental outcomes. The prevalence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is particularly high in previously institutionalized children, yet the mechanisms underlying this association are poorly understood. We investigated whether deficits in executive functioning (EF) explain the link between institutionalization and ADHD. Method A sample of 136 children (aged 6–30 months) was recruited from institutions in Bucharest, Romania, and 72 never institutionalized community children matched for age and gender were recruited through general practitioners’ offices. At 8 years of age, children's performance on a number of EF components (working memory, response inhibition and planning) was evaluated. Teachers completed the Health and Behavior Questionnaire, which assesses two core features of ADHD, inattention and impulsivity. Results Children with history of institutionalization had higher inattention and impulsivity than community controls, and exhibited worse performance on working memory, response inhibition and planning tasks. Lower performances on working memory and response inhibition, but not planning, partially mediated the association between early institutionalization and inattention and impulsivity symptom scales at age 8 years. Conclusions Institutionalization was associated with decreased EF performance and increased ADHD symptoms. Deficits in working memory and response inhibition were specific mechanisms leading to ADHD in previously institutionalized children. These findings suggest that interventions that foster the development of EF might reduce risk for psychiatric problems in children exposed to early deprivation.
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Keyes, K. M., McLaughlin, K. A., Vo, T., Galbraith, T., & Heimberg, R. G. (2016). Anxious and aggressive: The co-occurrence of IED with anxiety disorders and implications for comorbidity, impairment, and treatment. Depression and Anxiety , 33 (2), 101–111.Abstract
BACKGROUND: Evidence suggests that impulsive aggression and explosive anger are common among individuals with anxiety disorders; yet, the influence of intermittent explosive disorder (IED) on the onset, course, consequences, and patterns of comorbidity among those with anxiety disorders is unknown. METHODS: Data were drawn from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (N = 9,282) and Adolescent Supplement (N = 9,632), nationally representative surveys conducted between 2001 and 2004. Diagnoses were based on structured lay-administered interviews. Lifetime diagnoses were assessed with structured instruments. Outcomes included comorbidity, functional and role impairment, and treatment utilization. RESULTS: Adolescents with a lifetime anxiety disorder had a higher prevalence of a lifetime anger attacks (68.5%) and IED (22.9%) than adolescents without a lifetime anxiety disorder (48.6 and 7.8%, respectively), especially social phobia and panic disorders. Similar elevation was found for adults. Age of onset and course of anxiety disorders did not differ by IED. Severe functional impairment associated with anxiety was higher among adolescents (39.3%) and adults (45.7%) with IED than those without IED (29.2 and 28.2%, respectively). Comorbidity for all other disorders was elevated. However, individuals with anxiety disorders and IED were no more likely to use treatment services than those with anxiety disorders without IED. CONCLUSIONS: Individuals with IED concomitant to anxiety disorder, especially social phobia and panic, are at marked risk for worse functional impairment and a higher burden of comorbidity, but onset and course of anxiety disorder do not differ, and those with anxiety and IED are no more likely to utilize treatment services. Assessment, identification, and specialized treatment of anger in the context of anxiety disorders are critical to reducing burden.
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McLaughlin, K. A., & Sheridan, M. A. (2016). Beyond Cumulative Risk: A Dimensional Approach to Childhood Adversity. Current Directions in Psychological Science , 25 (4), 239–245.Abstract
Children who have experienced environmental adversity-such as abuse, neglect, or poverty-are more likely to develop physical and mental health problems, perform poorly at school, and have difficulties in social relationships than children who have not encountered adversity. What is less clear is how and why adverse early experiences exert such a profound influence on children's development. Identifying developmental processes that are disrupted by adverse early environments is the key to developing better intervention strategies for children who have experienced adversity. Yet, much existing research relies on a cumulative risk approach that is unlikely to reveal these mechanisms. This approach tallies the number of distinct adversities experienced to create a risk score. This risk score fails to distinguish between distinct types of environmental experience, implicitly assuming that very different experiences influence development through the same underlying mechanisms. We advance an alternative model. This novel approach conceptualizes adversity along distinct dimensions, emphasizes the central role of learning mechanisms, and distinguishes between different forms of adversity that might influence learning in distinct ways. A key advantage of this approach is that learning mechanisms provide clear targets for interventions aimed at preventing negative developmental outcomes in children who have experienced adversity.
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Heleniak, C., McLaughlin, K. A., Ormel, J., & Riese, H. (2016). Cardiovascular reactivity as a mechanism linking child trauma to adolescent psychopathology. Biological Psychology , 120, 108–119.Abstract
Alterations in physiological reactivity to stress are argued to be central mechanisms linking adverse childhood environmental experiences to internalizing and externalizing psychopathology. Childhood trauma exposure may influence physiological reactivity to stress in distinct ways from other forms of childhood adversity. This study applied a novel theoretical model to investigate the impact of childhood trauma on cardiovascular stress reactivity - the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat. This model suggests that inefficient cardiovascular responses to stress - a threat as opposed to challenge profile - are characterized by blunted cardiac output (CO) reactivity and increased vascular resistance. We examined whether childhood trauma exposure predicted an indicator of the threat profile of cardiovascular reactivity and whether such a pattern was associated with adolescent psychopathology in a population-representative sample of 488 adolescents (M=16.17years old, 49.2% boys) in the TRacking Adolescents' Individual Lives Survey (TRAILS). Exposure to trauma was associated with both internalizing and externalizing symptoms and a pattern of cardiovascular reactivity consistent with the threat profile, including blunted CO reactivity during a social stress task. Blunted CO reactivity, in turn, was positively associated with externalizing, but not internalizing symptoms and mediated the link between trauma and externalizing psychopathology. None of these associations varied by gender. The biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat provides a novel theoretical framework for understanding disruptions in physiological reactivity to stress following childhood trauma exposure, revealing a potential pathway linking such exposure with externalizing problems in adolescents.
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Gooding, H. C., Milliren, C. E., Austin, S. B., Sheridan, M. A., & McLaughlin, K. A. (2016). Child Abuse, Resting Blood Pressure, and Blood Pressure Reactivity to Psychosocial Stress. Journal of Pediatric Psychology , 41 (1), 5–14.Abstract
OBJECTIVE: Childhood trauma is associated with hypertension in adults. It is unknown whether childhood trauma predicts elevated blood pressure earlier in development. We investigated whether the trauma of child abuse was associated with blood pressure in adolescents. METHODS: The sample included 145 adolescents aged 13-17 years, 40% with exposure to child abuse. The mean age of participants was 14.93 years (SD = 1.33); 58% were female. The majority self-identified as non-Hispanic White (43%), with the remainder identifying as non-Hispanic Black (17%), Hispanic (17%), or other/mixed race (23%). We used established age/sex/height-specific cutoffs to determine the prevalence of prehypertension and hypertension in the sample. We used two-sample t tests to examine associations of abuse with resting systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and blood pressure reactivity to the Trier Social Stress Test and a frustration task. We used linear regression to adjust for potential confounders including sociodemographic variables, body mass index, smoking, and psychopathology. RESULTS: Mean resting SBP and DBP were 114.07 mmHg and 61.35 mmHg in those with a history of abuse and 111.39 mmHg and 56.89 mmHg in those without a history of abuse. This difference was significant for DBP only. Twelve percent of participants met criteria for prehypertension or hypertension based on resting blood pressure values; this did not differ between those with and without an abuse history. Child abuse was associated with lower DBP and SBP reactivity to laboratory stress tasks and reduced DBP reactivity to frustration. These associations were robust to adjustment for potential confounders. CONCLUSIONS: Child abuse is associated with higher resting DBP and blunted DBP and SBP reactivity to laboratory stress in adolescence. These findings suggest a potential pathway by which child abuse leads to hypertension.
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Gold, A. L., Sheridan, M. A., Peverill, M., Busso, D. S., Lambert, H. K., Alves, S., Pine, D. S., et al. (2016). Childhood abuse and reduced cortical thickness in brain regions involved in emotional processing. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry , 57 (10), 1154–1164. Publisher's VersionAbstract
BACKGROUND: Alterations in gray matter development represent a potential pathway through which childhood abuse is associated with psychopathology. Several prior studies find reduced volume and thickness of prefrontal (PFC) and temporal cortex regions in abused compared with nonabused adolescents, although most prior research is based on adults and volume-based measures. This study tests the hypothesis that child abuse, independent of parental education, predicts reduced cortical thickness in prefrontal and temporal cortices as well as reduced gray mater volume (GMV) in subcortical regions during adolescence. METHODS: Structural MRI scans were obtained from 21 adolescents exposed to physical and/or sexual abuse and 37 nonabused adolescents (ages 13-20). Abuse was operationalized using dichotomous and continuous measures. We examined associations between abuse and brain structure in several a priori-defined regions, controlling for parental education, age, sex, race, and total brain volume for subcortical GMV. Significance was evaluated at p \textless .05 with a false discovery rate correction. RESULTS: Child abuse exposure and severity were associated with reduced thickness in ventromedial prefrontal cortex (PFC), right lateral orbitofrontal cortex, right inferior frontal gyrus, bilateral parahippocampal gyrus (PHG), left temporal pole, and bilateral inferior, right middle, and right superior temporal gyri. Neither abuse measure predicted cortical surface area or subcortical GMV. Bilateral PHG thickness was inversely related to externalizing symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Child abuse, an experience characterized by a high degree of threat, is associated with reduced cortical thickness in ventromedial and ventrolateral PFC and medial and lateral temporal cortex in adolescence. Reduced PHG thickness may be a mediator linking abuse with externalizing psychopathology, although prospective research is needed to evaluate this possibility.
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McLaughlin, K. A., Basu, A., Walsh, K., Slopen, N., Sumner, J. A., Koenen, K. C., & Keyes, K. M. (2016). Childhood Exposure to Violence and Chronic Physical Conditions in a National Sample of US Adolescents. Psychosomatic Medicine , 78 (9), 1072–1083.Abstract
OBJECTIVES: Exposure to violence is associated with chronic physical conditions in adults. Although violence exposure is common among youths, it is unknown whether violence is associated with chronic physical conditions in childhood and adolescence. We examined the associations of violence exposure with chronic physical conditions in a population-representative sample of US adolescents and determined whether associations were explained by co-occurring mental disorders. METHODS: Data were drawn from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication-Adolescent Supplement (NCS-A), a national cross-sectional survey of 6,483 adolescents (ages 13-17). Lifetime exposure to violence; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition mood, anxiety, and substance disorders; and self-reported arthritis, frequent headaches, back or neck problems, other chronic pain, asthma, and allergies were assessed. RESULTS: One in 4 (24.99%) adolescents reported exposure to violence. Violence exposure was associated with elevated odds of back/neck pain, headaches, chronic pain, allergies, and asthma (odds ratio [OR], 1.5-2.1; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.1-3.5) after adjustment for sociodemographics, socioeconomic status, and lifetime mental disorders. Regarding new onsets, violence exposure was associated with greater hazard for subsequent first-onset only of back/neck pain (hazard ratio, 1.9; 95% CI, 1.2-3.0) and headaches (hazard ratio, 1.4; 95% CI, 1.1-1.8), and these associations were explained by early-onset mental disorders. CONCLUSIONS: Childhood violence exposure is associated with chronic physical conditions that emerge early in the life course, although associations are stronger for prevalent than incident conditions. Violence exposure predicts incident pain conditions only, and these associations are explained by mental disorders that begin after violence exposure. Interventions and policies aimed at preventing violence and detecting and treating early-onset mental disorders have the potential to reduce morbidity, mortality, and health disparities beginning early in development.
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Heleniak, C., Jenness, J. L., Stoep, A. V., McCauley, E., & McLaughlin, K. A. (2016). Childhood Maltreatment Exposure and Disruptions in Emotion Regulation: A Transdiagnostic Pathway to Adolescent Internalizing and Externalizing Psychopathology. Cognitive Therapy and Research , 40 (3), 394–415.Abstract
Child maltreatment is a robust risk factor for internalizing and externalizing psychopathology in children and adolescents. We examined the role of disruptions in emotion regulation processes as a developmental mechanism linking child maltreatment to the onset of multiple forms of psychopathology in adolescents. Specifically, we examined whether child maltreatment was associated with emotional reactivity and maladaptive cognitive and behavioral responses to distress, including rumination and impulsive behaviors, in two separate samples. We additionally investigated whether each of these components of emotion regulation were associated with internalizing and externalizing psychopathology and mediated the association between child maltreatment and psychopathology. Study 1 included a sample of 167 adolescents recruited based on exposure to physical, sexual, or emotional abuse. Study 2 included a sample of 439 adolescents in a community-based cohort study followed prospectively for 5 years. In both samples, child maltreatment was associated with higher levels of internalizing psychopathology, elevated emotional reactivity, and greater habitual engagement in rumination and impulsive responses to distress. In Study 2, emotional reactivity and maladaptive responses to distress mediated the association between child maltreatment and both internalizing and externalizing psychopathology. These findings provide converging evidence for the role of emotion regulation deficits as a transdiagnostic developmental pathway linking child maltreatment with multiple forms of psychopathology.
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Carliner, H., Keyes, K. M., McLaughlin, K. A., Meyers, J. L., Dunn, E. C., & Martins, S. S. (2016). Childhood Trauma and Illicit Drug Use in Adolescence. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry , 55 (8), 701–708.Abstract
OBJECTIVE: Although potentially traumatic events (PTEs) are established risk factors for substance use disorders among adults, little is known about associations with drug use during adolescence, an important developmental stage for drug use prevention. We examined whether childhood PTEs were associated with illicit drug use among a representative sample of US adolescents. METHOD: Data were drawn from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication-Adolescent Supplement (NCS-A), which included adolescents aged 13 to 18 years (N = 9,956). Weighted logistic regression models estimated risk ratios for lifetime use of marijuana, cocaine, nonmedical prescription drugs, other drugs, and multiple drugs. RESULTS: Exposure to any PTE before age 11 years was reported by 36% of the sample and was associated with higher risk for use of marijuana (risk ratio [RR] = 1.50), cocaine (RR = 2.78), prescription drugs (RR = 1.80), other drugs (RR = 1.90), and multiple drugs (RR = 1.74). A positive monotonic relationship was observed between number of PTEs and marijuana, other drug, and multiple drug use. Interpersonal violence was associated with all drug use outcomes. Accidents and unspecified events were associated with higher risk for marijuana, cocaine, and prescription drug use. CONCLUSION: Potentially traumatic events in childhood are associated with risk for illicit drug use among US adolescents. These findings add to the literature by illustrating a potentially modifiable health behavior that may be a target for intervention. The results also highlight that adolescents with a trauma history are a high-risk group for illicit drug use and may benefit from trauma-focused prevention efforts that specifically address traumatic memories and coping strategies for dealing with stressful life events.
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McLaughlin, K. A. (2016). Future Directions in Childhood Adversity and Youth Psychopathology. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology , 45 (3), 361–382.Abstract
Despite long-standing interest in the influence of adverse early experiences on mental health, systematic scientific inquiry into childhood adversity and developmental outcomes has emerged only recently. Existing research has amply demonstrated that exposure to childhood adversity is associated with elevated risk for multiple forms of youth psychopathology. In contrast, knowledge of developmental mechanisms linking childhood adversity to the onset of psychopathology-and whether those mechanisms are general or specific to particular kinds of adversity-remains cursory. Greater understanding of these pathways and identification of protective factors that buffer children from developmental disruptions following exposure to adversity is essential to guide the development of interventions to prevent the onset of psychopathology following adverse childhood experiences. This article provides recommendations for future research in this area. In particular, use of a consistent definition of childhood adversity, integration of studies of typical development with those focused on childhood adversity, and identification of distinct dimensions of environmental experience that differentially influence development are required to uncover mechanisms that explain how childhood adversity is associated with numerous psychopathology outcomes (i.e., multifinality) and identify moderators that shape divergent trajectories following adverse childhood experiences. A transdiagnostic model that highlights disruptions in emotional processing and poor executive functioning as key mechanisms linking childhood adversity with multiple forms of psychopathology is presented as a starting point in this endeavour. Distinguishing between general and specific mechanisms linking childhood adversity with psychopathology is needed to generate empirically informed interventions to prevent the long-term consequences of adverse early environments on children's development.
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Seeley, S. H., Mennin, D. S., Aldao, A., McLaughlin, K. A., Rottenberg, J., & Fresco, D. M. (2016). Impact of Comorbid Depressive Disorders on Subjective and Physiological Responses to Emotion in Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Cognitive Therapy and Research , 40 (30), 290–303.Abstract
Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and unipolar depressive disorders (UDD) have been shown to differ from each other in dimensions of affective functioning despite their high rates of comorbidity. We showed emotional film clips to a community sample (n = 170) with GAD, GAD with secondary UDD, or no diagnosis. Groups had comparable subjective responses to the clips, but the GAD group had significantly lower heart rate variability (HRV) during fear and after sadness, compared to controls. While HRV in the GAD and control groups rose in response to the sadness and happiness clips, it returned to baseline levels afterwards in the GAD group, potentially indicating lesser ability to sustain attention on emotional stimuli. HRV in the GAD + UDD group changed only in response to sadness, but was otherwise unvarying between timepoints. Though preliminary, these findings suggest comorbid UDD as a potential moderator of emotional responding in GAD.
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McLaughlin, K. A., Lane, R. D., & Bush, N. R. (2016). Introduction to the Special Issue of Psychosomatic Medicine: Mechanisms Linking Early-Life Adversity to Physical Health. Psychosomatic Medicine , 78 (9), 976–978. PDF
McLaughlin, K. A., Sheridan, M. A., Gold, A. L., Duys, A., Lambert, H. K., Peverill, M., Heleniak, C., et al. (2016). Maltreatment Exposure, Brain Structure, and Fear Conditioning in Children and Adolescents. Neuropsychopharmacology , 41 (8), 1956–1964. Publisher's VersionAbstract
Alterations in learning processes and the neural circuitry that supports fear conditioning and extinction represent mechanisms through which trauma exposure might influence risk for psychopathology. Few studies examine how trauma or neural structure relates to fear conditioning in children. Children (n=94) aged 6-18 years, 40.4% (n=38) with exposure to maltreatment (physical abuse, sexual abuse, or domestic violence), completed a fear conditioning paradigm utilizing blue and yellow bells as conditioned stimuli (CS+/CS-) and an aversive alarm noise as the unconditioned stimulus. Skin conductance responses (SCR) and self-reported fear were acquired. Magnetic resonance imaging data were acquired from 60 children. Children without maltreatment exposure exhibited strong differential conditioning to the CS+ vs CS-, based on SCR and self-reported fear. In contrast, maltreated children exhibited blunted SCR to the CS+ and failed to exhibit differential SCR to the CS+ vs CS- during early conditioning. Amygdala and hippocampal volume were reduced among children with maltreatment exposure and were negatively associated with SCR to the CS+ during early conditioning in the total sample, although these associations were negative only among non-maltreated children and were positive among maltreated children. The association of maltreatment with externalizing psychopathology was mediated by this perturbed pattern of fear conditioning. Child maltreatment is associated with failure to discriminate between threat and safety cues during fear conditioning in children. Poor threat-safety discrimination might reflect either enhanced fear generalization or a deficit in associative learning, which may in turn represent a central mechanism underlying the development of maltreatment-related externalizing psychopathology in children.
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Bush, N. R., Lane, R. D., & McLaughlin, K. A. (2016). Mechanisms Underlying the Association Between Early-Life Adversity and Physical Health: Charting a Course for the Future. Psychosomatic Medicine , 78 (9), 1114–1119.Abstract
Early-life adversities (ELA) are associated with subsequent pervasive alterations across a wide range of neurobiological systems and psychosocial factors that contribute to accelerated onset of health problems and diseases. In this article, we provide an integrated perspective on recent developments in research on ELA, based on the articles published in this Special Issue of Psychosomatic Medicine. We focus on the following: 1) the distinction between specific versus general aspects of ELA with regard to the nature of exposure (e.g., physical and sexual abuse, emotional abuse or neglect, relative socioeconomic deprivation), biological and behavioral correlates of ELA, and differences across diseases; 2) the importance of timing in the critical phases of exposure to ELA; and 3) adaptive versus dysfunctional responses to ELA and their consequences for biological and behavioral risk factors for adverse health outcomes. This article concludes with outlining important new targets for research in this area, including the neurobiology of affect as a mechanism linking ELA to adverse health outcomes, and the need for large-scale longitudinal investigations of multisystem processes relevant to ELA in diverse samples, starting prenatally, continuing to late adolescence, and with long-term follow-up assessments that enable evaluation of incident disease outcomes.
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Olson, K. R., Durwood, L., DeMeules, M., & McLaughlin, K. A. (2016). Mental Health of Transgender Children Who are Supported in Their Identities. Pediatrics , 137 (1). PDF
Dennison, M. J., Sheridan, M. A., Busso, D. S., Jenness, J. L., Peverill, M., Rosen, M. L., & McLaughlin, K. A. (2016). Neurobehavioral markers of resilience to depression amongst adolescents exposed to child abuse. Journal of Abnormal Psychology , 125 (8), 1201–1212.Abstract
{Childhood maltreatment is strongly associated with depression, which is characterized by reduced reactivity to reward. Identifying factors that mitigate risk for depression in maltreated children is important for understanding etiological links between maltreatment and depression as well as improving early intervention and prevention. We examine whether high reward reactivity at behavioral and neurobiological levels is a marker of resilience to depressive symptomology in adolescence following childhood maltreatment. A sample of 59 adolescents (21 with a history of maltreatment; Mean Age = 16.95 years
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Sheridan, M. A., & McLaughlin, K. A. (2016). Neurobiological Models of the Impact of Adversity on Education. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences , 10, 108–113.Abstract
Poverty and exposure to adversity have been linked with decreased educational success. Various environmental and neurobiological pathways have been proposed for these associations, however, existing models have several clear drawbacks. Here we outline existing models, and propose an alternate model linking exposure to adverse experiences in childhood to education success. Specifically, we propose that measured dimensions of experience (e.g., decreased cognitive enrichment or increased exposure to violence), instead of named exposures (e.g., poverty) impact neurobiology through neurodevelopmental processes of neuroplasticity. Our model results in testable hypotheses and clear intervention strategies. We predict that exposure to trauma will have a distinct neurobiological impact from exposure to a lack of cognitive stimulation and that these distinct exposures will benefit from different interventions. Specificity in this arena is thus likely to better support educational achievement for disadvantaged children.
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