From Risk to Resilience: Adult Survivors of Childhood Violence Talk About Their Experiences

<p>The main focus of research into family violence has been around the ideas of intergenerational transmission of learned behaviours. We know a good deal about what constitutes risk for children, the outcomes of that risk and the processes that work to translate difficult childhoods into difficult adulthoods - for some children. We also all know children who seem to have 'weathered' the most appalling childhoods and to have emerged strong and resilient and who do not repeat the patterns of relating they experienced as children in their adult lives. It is this group that is the focus of the study. A purposively selected sample of eight, seven women and one man, with a range of backgrounds, was interviewed in depth using qualitative research methods informed by feminist standpoint theory. All of the eight had identified as having experienced significant violence as children, mainly in their families of origin. They also stated that they did not currently relate to their partners or children in violent ways, nor were they the victims of violent relationships. They consequently fell into the category of those who have "broken the cycle" of intergenerational abuse. Each person identified the things that helped them through their experiences and their reflections were then examined in more detail in the context of other studies on resilience. The interviews yielded an interesting array of findings which were consistent with literature which identifies certain attributes of the person and of their environment as protective. Findings are discussed with a view to their relevance to social work practice and policy. The list of protective factors may serve as an 'inventory' of potential resources for those working in the field of family violence. This study supports earlier work which challenges the idea of the inevitability of the intergenerational transmission of abuse, working instead from a paradigm which suggests that there are a multiplicity of 'resilience factors,' both integral to the individual and environmental, which interact in complex ways to enable many people to survive abuse and to relate in healthy ways in their adult lives.</p>

From Risk to Resilience: Adult Survivors of Childhood Violence Talk About Their Experiences

<p>The main focus of research into family violence has been around the ideas of intergenerational transmission of learned behaviours. We know a good deal about what constitutes risk for children, the outcomes of that risk and the processes that work to translate difficult childhoods into difficult adulthoods - for some children. We also all know children who seem to have 'weathered' the most appalling childhoods and to have emerged strong and resilient and who do not repeat the patterns of relating they experienced as children in their adult lives. It is this group that is the focus of the study. A purposively selected sample of eight, seven women and one man, with a range of backgrounds, was interviewed in depth using qualitative research methods informed by feminist standpoint theory. All of the eight had identified as having experienced significant violence as children, mainly in their families of origin. They also stated that they did not currently relate to their partners or children in violent ways, nor were they the victims of violent relationships. They consequently fell into the category of those who have "broken the cycle" of intergenerational abuse. Each person identified the things that helped them through their experiences and their reflections were then examined in more detail in the context of other studies on resilience. The interviews yielded an interesting array of findings which were consistent with literature which identifies certain attributes of the person and of their environment as protective. Findings are discussed with a view to their relevance to social work practice and policy. The list of protective factors may serve as an 'inventory' of potential resources for those working in the field of family violence. This study supports earlier work which challenges the idea of the inevitability of the intergenerational transmission of abuse, working instead from a paradigm which suggests that there are a multiplicity of 'resilience factors,' both integral to the individual and environmental, which interact in complex ways to enable many people to survive abuse and to relate in healthy ways in their adult lives.</p>

Differentiating Between Us & Them: Reduced In-Group Bias as a Novel Mechanism Linking Childhood Violence Exposure with Internalizing Psychopathology

Strong in-group bonds may promote mental health across development. Violence exposure influences social information processing biases and may also relate to social categorization processes. We examined associations of violence exposure with psychopathology and behavioral and neural indices of implicit and explicit in-group bias after minimal group assignment in children followed longitudinally across three time points from ages 5 to 10 years old (n = 101). In a pre-registered analysis, violence exposure was associated with lower implicit in-group bias, which in turn was associated prospectively with higher internalizing symptoms and mediated the longitudinal association between violence exposure and internalizing symptoms. Violence-exposed children did not exhibit the negative functional coupling between the left vmPFC and left amygdala when classifying in-group vs. out-group members that was observed in children without violence exposure. Reduced implicit bias for one’s in-group may represent a novel mechanism linking violence exposure with the development of internalizing symptoms.

Gun violence against unhoused and unstably housed women: A cross-sectional study that highlights links to childhood violence

Background Unstably housed women experience high levels of violence. While previous studies have investigated psychological, physical, and sexual violence, weapon and gun violence are rarely delineated. We examined factors associated with experiencing violence as an adult among unhoused and unstably housed women, with a focus on gun violence. Methods We recruited women with a history of housing instability from San Francisco homeless shelters, street encampments, free meal programs, low-income hotels, and health clinics. Participants completed interviews including questions regarding both childhood and adult violence. We used multivariable logistic regression to examine associations of specific types of childhood violence (i.e., physical, sexual, gun, other weapon-involved violence), age, race, ethnicity, educational attainment, and sexual orientation, with risk of experiencing specific types of violence as an adult (i.e., gun, other weapon-involved, physical violence). Because the violence outcomes were not rare, odds ratios were transformed to approximate risk ratios. Results Nearly half of women (n = 110, 45%) had been attacked with a gun as an adult. Violent victimization in adulthood was common, with 33% having experienced all three forms of violence. The probability of being attacked with a gun as an adult was almost 70% higher among women who had been hit or kicked hard enough to cause injury as a child (RR = 1.68; 95% CI = 1.24, 2.11), and this association was present for all three violence outcomes. No other risk factors explored, including other types of violence experienced as a child, met the statistical threshold to be considered significant. Conclusions The high prevalence of gun violence reported here is consistent with prior studies of violence conducted in similar populations. Considered in combination with prior research, findings suggest multi-generational violence prevention interventions for low-income women and girls are needed. They also emphasize the need to more actively include people who experience unstable housing in statewide and national violence surveys to better understand the extent of the problem and address on a broader scale the high rates of violence experienced by unstably housed populations, which have been consistently documented in local research.

Help-Seeking to Cope With Experiences of Violence Among Women Living With HIV in Canada

Using baseline data from a community-collaborative cohort of women living with HIV in Canada, we assessed the prevalence and correlates of help-seeking among 1,057 women who reported experiencing violence in adulthood (≥16 years). After violence, 447 (42%) sought help, while 610 (58%) did not. Frequently accessed supports included health care providers ( n = 313, 70%), family/friends ( n = 244, 55%), and non-HIV community organizations ( n = 235, 53%). All accessed supports were perceived as helpful. Independent correlates of help-seeking included reporting a previous mental health diagnosis, a history of injection drug use, experiencing childhood violence, and experiencing sexism. We discuss considerations for better supporting women who experience violence.

Intimate partner violence and its association with mental health problems: The importance of childhood violence – The SAMINOR 2 Questionnaire Survey

Aims: This study aims to estimate the prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) and its association with psychological distress and symptoms of post-traumatic stress (PTS) among Sami and non-Sami and to explore whether the association between IPV and mental health is modified by exposure to childhood violence (CV). These issues are scarcely studied among the Sami. Methods: This study was based on the cross-sectional SAMINOR 2 Questionnaire Survey, a part of the Population-based Study on Health and Living Conditions in Regions with Sami and Norwegian Populations (SAMINOR). Chi-square tests and two-sample t-tests were used to test differences between groups. Multiple linear regression analysis was applied to explore the association between IPV/CV and continuous scores of psychological distress and symptoms of post-traumatic stress. Results: Experiences of IPV (emotional, physical, and/or sexual) were reported by 12.8% of women and 2.0% of men. A significantly higher proportion of Sami women reported exposure to emotional (12.4 v. 9.5%, p = 0.003), physical (11.6 v. 6.9%, p < 0.001), and any IPV (17.2 v. 11.8%, p < 0.001) compared to non-Sami women. There were no ethnic differences in sexual IPV among women (2%). Exposure to IPV was associated with a higher score of psychological distress and PTS and was highest among those exposed to both IPV and CV. Conclusions: Sami women reported the highest prevalence of IPV. The association between IPV/CV and mental health problems did not differ by ethnicity or gender. The most severe mental health problems were observed for those who were exposed to both IPV and CV.

The victimizing effect of violent socialization: Intimate partner use of coercive sexual practices transnationally

Research seems to focus more on examining predictors of sexual victimization rather than violent experiences predicting coercive sexual behaviors. Little research explores victim to offender associations. The present study expands current literature by exploring transnational differences in which coercive sexual behaviors manifest from childhood violence experiences. Do experiences of violence during childhood impact the use of coercive sexual behaviors? Multilevel modeling regression analysis, used on data from the International Dating Violence Study, reveal several interesting findings: (1) violent socialization from families is associated with coercive sexual behavior, (2) violent socialization from the community is associated with coercive sexual behavior, and (3) nations where violent socialization is more prevalent, the average level of coercive sexual behaviors tends to increase. Identifying predictive processes for sexual coercion is important. Sexual coercion may be represented in subtle day to day interactions that over time instill a sense of violence normality and further perpetuate victimization.

Vagal Tone and Extinction Learning as Potential Transdiagnostic Protective Factors Following Childhood Violence Exposure

Childhood exposure to violence is strongly associated with psychopathology. High resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) has been found to protect against psychopathology in children who have experienced adversity. High RSA may protect against psychopathology by facilitating fear extinction learning, allowing individuals to more appropriately regulate autonomic responses to learned threat and safety cues. In the present study, 165 youth (79 female, ages 9-17; 86 exposed to violence) completed assessments of violence exposure, RSA, psychopathology, and a fear extinction learning task; 134 participants returned and completed psychopathology assessments two years later. Resting RSA moderated the association of violence exposure with PTSD symptoms and transdiagnostic psychopathology (p-factor) at follow-up, such that the association was weaker among youth with higher RSA. Higher skin conductance responses (SCR) when viewing the stimulus associated with an aversive noise (CS+) as well as when viewing the stimulus that was unassociated with the aversive noise (CS-) during extinction learning predicted higher internalizing symptoms and p-factor at follow-up. These findings suggest that higher RSA may protect against the onset of psychopathology among children exposed to violence. Moreover, our findings suggest that in addition to difficulty extinguishing learned threat responses, elevated autonomic responses to safety cues may contribute to psychopathology.