Associations of caregiver-adolescent conflict and caregiver emotional support with adolescent trauma symptoms and adjustment after sexual abuse

Ernest N Jouriles; Melissa J Sitton; Caitlin Rancher; Mindy Jackson; Renee McDonald

doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2023.106488

Associations of caregiver-adolescent conflict and caregiver emotional support with adolescent trauma symptoms and adjustment after sexual abuse

Child Abuse Negl. 2023 Dec:146:106488. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2023.106488. Epub 2023 Oct 11.

Authors

Ernest N Jouriles¹, Melissa J Sitton², Caitlin Rancher³, Mindy Jackson⁴, Renee McDonald²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, Southern Methodist University, P.O. Box 750442, Dallas, TX 75275-0442, USA. Electronic address: ejourile@smu.edu.
² Department of Psychology, Southern Methodist University, P.O. Box 750442, Dallas, TX 75275-0442, USA.
³ National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center, Medical University of South Carolina, 67 President Street, 2nd Fl. IOP S., MSC861, Charleston, SC 29425-8610, USA.
⁴ Dallas Children's Advocacy Center, 5351 Samuell Blvd., Dallas, TX 75228, USA.

PMID: 37832247
DOI: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2023.106488

Abstract

Background: Emotional support from a caregiver is believed to be important for reducing the likelihood of adolescent trauma symptoms and adjustment problems after sexual abuse. Conflict with a caregiver, another relational dynamic, is very common during adolescence, but little is known about how it might operate in tandem with emotional support to influence adolescent trauma symptoms and adjustment after sexual abuse.

Objective: To better understand how caregiver emotional support and caregiver-adolescent conflict jointly contribute to adolescent trauma symptoms and adjustment after sexual abuse.

Participants and setting: Participants were 477 adolescents (M_age = 13.59, SD = 1.77) and a non-offending caregiver presenting at a children's advocacy center.

Methods: Adolescents completed measures of caregiver-adolescent conflict, caregiver emotional support, and their own trauma symptoms and adjustment. Caregivers completed a measure of adolescent adjustment.

Results: Caregiver-adolescent conflict and caregiver emotional support each correlated in the expected direction with adolescent trauma symptoms and adjustment (conflict correlations ranged from 0.27 to 0.38, all p values ≤.001; support correlations ranged from -0.15 to -0.21, all p values ≤.01). Regression analyses, which simultaneously considered conflict and support, indicated that conflict related to adolescent trauma symptoms and each of the measures of adolescent adjustment, whereas caregiver emotional support contributed to caregiver reports of adolescent adjustment. Caregiver-adolescent conflict did not moderate any of the relations between caregiver emotional support and adolescent trauma symptoms or adjustment.

Conclusions: In the aftermath of sexual abuse, caregiver-adolescent conflict contributes to adolescent trauma symptoms and adjustment.

Keywords: Adolescence; Adolescent adjustment; Caregiver emotional support; Caregiver-adolescent conflict; Sexual abuse.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Adverse Childhood Experiences*
Caregivers / psychology
Child
Child Abuse, Sexual* / psychology
Counseling
Emotions
Humans

Grants and funding

T32 MH018869/MH/NIMH NIH HHS/United States