(PS4-C67) Protective Factors for Adolescents Who Have Experienced Trauma

Friday, November 17, 2023

1:00 PM – 2:00 PM PST

Location: Regency Ballroom, Level 7

Author(s)

Mackenzie A. Trevethan, M.A.

Clinical Psychology Graduate Student
University of Toledo
Toledo, Ohio

Co-Author(s)

EC

Erin B. Crittenden, B.A.

Graduate Student
University of Toledo
Toledo, Ohio
LK

Lauren Kramer, B.A.

Clinical Psychology Graduate Student
The University of Toledo
Toledo, Ohio
AW

Avleen Walia, B.S.

Clinical Psychology Graduate Student
The University of Toledo
Toledo, Ohio
SF

Sarah E. Francis, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Director of Clinical Training
University of Toledo
Toledo, Ohio

Adverse life events are associated with worsened physical and mental health among children and adolescents (Hutchins et al., 2022). The mechanisms between the experiences of adversity in childhood and the development of psychological distress need further investigation. Potential external variables that may affect this relationship are parental warmth or rejection (Slone & Shoshani, 2017). Additionally, resilience may serve as an internal protective factor (Vaughan et al., 2019). Individuals that experience trauma in childhood have been shown to have lower levels of resilience (Park et al., 2023). In order to investigate factors that might influence the relationship between childhood trauma and personal resilience, we investigated the moderating role of parental warmth. A sample of 115 adolescents ranging from 12 to 19 years of age (M_age = 18, SD = 1.03) completed measures of childhood trauma (CTQ; Pennebaker & Susman, 2013), parental warmth (PARQ; Rohner & Ali, 2020), as well as personal resilience (CRYM-R; Jefferies et al., 2018). The majority of these adolescents were female (i.e., 74.2%) and White (i.e., 61.7%) with a range of different ethnicities endorsed (i.e., Black, 14.2%; South Asian, 10%; Latinx, 3.3%; East Asian, 2.5%; Multiracial, 2.5; and Other, 5.8%). To investigate protective factors for childhood trauma a moderation analysis was performed using PROCESS macro. The interaction between childhood trauma and parental warmth was found to be statistically significant (t(113) = 3.24, p</span> = .001, β = 0.10). This model accounted for 30.36% of the variance in resilience (p < .001). Additionally, the prediction from childhood trauma to resilience was significant for adolescents with high levels of parental warmth (t(113) = 3.54, p</span> < .001, β = 2.15), but not for adolescents with average (t(113) = 0.41, p</span> = .68, β = 0.19) or low (t(113) = -0.74, p</span> = .46, β = -0.42) levels of parental warmth. These findings indicate that for adolescents who experienced trauma in childhood, the perception of high levels of warmth from their parents can mitigate the negative effect of childhood trauma and help the adolescent develop a greater amount of personal resiliency. Thus, high parental warmth appears to be a protective factor against childhood trauma.