Relations Between Stress-Adapted Communication Skills and Toxic Social Networks Among Young Adults with Childhood Adversity

Samantha M Brown; Meara H Faw; Rachel G Lucas-Thompson; Jessica Pettigrew; Kelley Quirk

doi:10.1007/s42844-023-00093-1

Relations Between Stress-Adapted Communication Skills and Toxic Social Networks Among Young Adults with Childhood Adversity

Advers Resil Sci. 2023 Mar 15:1-13. doi: 10.1007/s42844-023-00093-1. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Samantha M Brown¹, Meara H Faw², Rachel G Lucas-Thompson³, Jessica Pettigrew⁴, Kelley Quirk³

Affiliations

¹ School of Social Work, Colorado State University, 1586 Campus Delivery, Fort Collins, CO 80523 USA.
² Department of Communication Studies, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO USA.
³ Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO USA.
⁴ School of Social Work, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO USA.

Abstract

Adverse childhood experiences are associated with deleterious outcomes across the lifespan. However, some individuals who grow up in adverse environments may develop stress-adapted skills or resilience factors that enable them to function in their current lived environments. This study explored whether communication is a stress-adapted skill among young adults with co-occurring forms of childhood adversity and the extent to which these communication skills are implicated in toxic social networks. This cross-sectional study included 384 young adults, ages 18-35 years, who completed an online survey. Mixture modeling was used to conduct latent class models estimating subgroups of young adults with co-occurring forms of early adversity; then, regression models estimated the association between communication skills and toxic social networks among subgroups. Four latent classes were identified: (1) high childhood adversity; (2) high to moderate household dysfunction and emotional abuse; (3) high emotional abuse and moderate physical abuse and emotional neglect; and (4) low or no childhood adversity. Results from regression models indicate that participants classified in the high emotional abuse and moderate physical abuse and emotional neglect class had more adaptive communication skills with friends than their counterparts in the low or no childhood adversity class, and participants in the high childhood adversity or low or no childhood adversity classes with higher communication skills were less likely to report toxic social networks. Findings suggest that stress-adapted communication skills may be one resilience factor that supports adaptation among young adults with early adversity exposures.

Keywords: Adverse childhood experiences; Communication skills; Resilience; Toxic social networks.

© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023, Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.