Childhood Maltreatment: Emotional Consequences and Potential Intervention

童年虐待：情感后果和潜在干预

• 批准号: MR/N006194/1
• 负责人: Jennifer Lau
• 金额: $ 43.47万
• 依托单位: King's College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2015 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=MR%2FN006194%2F1
• 关键词: Childhood; Maltreatment; Emotional; Consequences; Potential

Childhood maltreatment, which includes the abuse and neglect of children and young people, is a significant problem that occurs in all countries in the world. Early maltreatment has serious, long-lasting consequences on an individual's health and well-being, but can also impact economic growth. Most estimates of the prevalence of childhood maltreatment have come from surveys conducted in high-income countries, with outstanding questions remaining on the nature and extent of child abuse and neglect among lower-income countries and, within these countries, among the most disadvantaged sectors. The evidence base is poor because of cultural stigma associated with childhood maltreatment and cultural norms around the acceptability of abuse as a form of discipline and punishment. Moreover, the economic context of these countries enables the general exploitation of children in the labour force. This could not only increase the likelihood of other forms of abuse and neglect but also make their presence less transparent. The first major goal of our research is to study the frequency of different forms of abuse and neglect among working children and young people in North India and Nepal. This work will directly contribute to our understanding of the scope of the problem and facilitate, among governmental and non-governmental organisations, specific recommendations for preventing violence against children, which are key ongoing priorities for the World Health Organisation and United Nations. Dissemination of our findings locally will also enable gradual change in attitudes and perceptions, shifting cultural norms and practices. Although the effects of childhood maltreatment on later-life health and functioning are well-documented, the pathways by which early-life adversity increases vulnerability on these negative outcomes are less well-understood. Prior research suggests that early adversity affects how the brain develops, particularly how it responds to, and manages stress. We do not know much about how these effects on the brain affect the way we process emotional information and think about the world - even though cognitive factors are directly targeted in psychological therapies. The second major goal of our research is to investigate how childhood abuse and neglect alters the processing of emotional information. We expect that as early maltreatment can leave scars on the developing brain, this affects the way that its victims attend to threatening information (showing vigilance for threat cues) and appraise ambiguous information (showing a tendency to interpret situations negatively or with hostile intent). These negative patterns of thinking may then increase the likelihood of developing anxiety, depression and aggressive responses towards stressful events - and even reinforce these negative problems. Although these disturbed patterns of thinking have been reported in physically abused children and young people, these studies have largely been conducted in high-income countries. Identifying these cognitive-emotional disturbances in maltreated young people from lower-income countries lays the foundation for developing a novel treatment tool to directly target these negative thought patterns in young people from these poorer countries. Developing and piloting a novel training intervention tool to encourage more adaptive ways of processing emotional information is the third major goal of our research. Specifically, cognitive bias modification is a technique used to correct negative thinking patterns, and therefore negative responses towards stress. It has been successfully used in adults with mood and anxiety problems, and in children and young people with emotional and aggressive problems. We will adapt this programme for use in maltreated young people and test whether this programme modifies negative thought patterns and, in doing so, normalises dysfunctional brain circuits, so that they resemble those of non-abused young people.

儿童虐待，包括虐待和忽视儿童和青少年，是世界所有国家都存在的一个严重问题。早期虐待会对个人的健康和福祉产生严重、持久的影响，但也会影响经济增长。大多数对儿童虐待发生率的估计都来自于在高收入国家进行的调查，但在低收入国家以及这些国家内最弱势群体中，虐待和忽视儿童的性质和程度仍然存在悬而未决的问题。由于与儿童虐待相关的文化耻辱以及接受虐待作为一种纪律和惩罚形式的文化规范，证据基础很薄弱。此外，这些国家的经济背景使得劳动力中的儿童普遍受到剥削。这不仅会增加其他形式的虐待和忽视的可能性，还会使他们的存在变得不那么透明。我们研究的第一个主要目标是研究印度北部和尼泊尔的童工和青少年中不同形式的虐待和忽视的频率。这项工作将直接有助于我们了解问题的范围，并促进政府和非政府组织提出预防暴力侵害儿童行为的具体建议，这是世界卫生组织和联合国当前的关键优先事项。在当地传播我们的研究结果也将逐步改变态度和观念，改变文化规范和做法。尽管童年虐待对晚年健康和功能的影响已有充分记录，但早年逆境增加这些负面后果的脆弱性的途径却不太清楚。先前的研究表明，早期的逆境会影响大脑的发育，特别是它如何应对和管理压力。我们不太了解这些对大脑的影响如何影响我们处理情感信息和思考世界的方式——尽管认知因素是心理治疗的直接目标。我们研究的第二个主要目标是调查童年虐待和忽视如何改变情感信息的处理。我们预计，由于早期虐待会在发育中的大脑上留下疤痕，这会影响受害者关注威胁信息（对威胁线索表现出警惕）和评估模棱两可的信息（表现出对情况进行消极或敌对意图解释的倾向）的方式。这些消极的思维模式可能会增加对压力事件产生焦虑、抑郁和攻击性反应的可能性，甚至加剧这些消极问题。尽管在遭受身体虐待的儿童和青少年中发现了这些紊乱的思维模式，但这些研究主要是在高收入国家进行的。识别来自低收入国家的受虐待年轻人的这些认知情绪障碍，为开发一种新颖的治疗工具奠定了基础，该工具可以直接针对来自这些较贫穷国家的年轻人的这些消极思维模式。开发和试点一种新颖的培训干预工具，以鼓励采用更具适应性的方式处理情绪信息是我们研究的第三个主要目标。具体来说，认知偏见修正是一种用于纠正消极思维模式以及对压力的消极反应的技术。它已成功用于有情绪和焦虑问题的成年人，以及有情绪和攻击性问题的儿童和青少年。我们将调整该程序以用于受虐待的年轻人，并测试该程序是否可以改变消极的思维模式，并在此过程中使功能失调的大脑回路正常化，使他们与未受虐待的年轻人相似。

项目成果

Pituitary volume in people with chronic schizophrenia: Clarifying the roles of serious violence and childhood maltreatment

慢性精神分裂症患者的垂体体积：阐明严重暴力和儿童虐待的作用

• DOI: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2021.111323
• 发表时间: 2021
• 期刊: Neuroimaging
• 作者: Bipin M

Factor analysis and validation of a self-report measure of impaired fear inhibition.

恐惧抑制受损自我报告测量的因素分析和验证。

• DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2018.1461064
• 发表时间: 2019
• 期刊: Cognition & emotion
• 影响因子: 2.6
• 作者: Barry TJ

Early maltreatment effects on adolescent attention control to non-emotional and emotional distractors.

• DOI: 10.1111/ajpy.12139
• 发表时间: 2016-09
• 期刊: Australian journal of psychology
• 影响因子: 2.7
• 作者: Gray P;Baker HM;Scerif G;Lau JY
• 通讯作者: Lau JY

Commentary: Predicting outcomes of treatment for anxiety disorders - using data from fear learning paradigms. A commentary on Waters and Pine (2016)

评论：预测焦虑症治疗的结果 - 使用恐惧学习范​​式的数据。

• DOI: 10.1111/jcpp.12553
• 发表时间: 2016
• 期刊: Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry
• 影响因子: 7.6
• 作者: Barry T