Rogerson, O. orcid.org/0000-0002-6967-587X, O'Connor, R.C. and O'Connor, D.B. (2024) The effects of childhood trauma on stress-related vulnerability factors and indicators of suicide risk: An ecological momentary assessment study. Journal of Affective Disorders. ISSN 0165-0327
Abstract
Background
Childhood trauma is experienced by approximately one third of young people in the United Kingdom and has been shown to confer an increased risk for mental health difficulties in adulthood. Understanding the associations between these factors before negative health outcomes manifest in adulthood is imperative to help inform the development of interventions. The aims of this study were two-fold; first, to investigate the effects of childhood trauma on daily stress-related vulnerability factors over a period of 7 days and to test whether any observed relationships were moderated by protective or risk factors. Second, to explore the indirect effects of childhood trauma on reasons for living, optimism, daily suicide ideation, defeat and entrapment through the daily stress-related vulnerability factors.
Methods
212 participants were recruited to an ecological momentary assessment study to complete three diaries per day for a 7-day period. Participants completed daily measures of stress, hassles, executive functioning, impulsivity, sleep quality (stress-related vulnerability factors) as well as measures of reasons for living, optimism, daily thoughts of suicide, defeat and entrapment. The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire was also completed at baseline.
Results
Analyses found that childhood trauma was significantly associated with higher scores on the daily stress-related vulnerability factors and positively related to each of the daily indicators of suicide risk. The study also uncovered key pathways whereby trauma had indirect effects on reasons for living, optimism, daily thoughts of suicide, defeat and entrapment through executive functioning, impulsivity, sleep quality and stress.
Limitations
The measures of executive function and sleep were self-reported and future research ought to replicate the current findings using more objective methods.
Discussion
The findings from this study highlight the complexity of childhood trauma and its damaging impacts on stress-related vulnerability factors and poorer mental health outcomes. Greater understanding of pathways by which trauma may impact later health outcomes is essential for development of interventions.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2024 Elsevier. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | Early life adversity; Suicide; Executive functioning; Impulsivity; Sleep |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Medicine and Health (Leeds) > School of Psychology (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 12 Feb 2024 14:20 |
Last Modified: | 12 Feb 2024 14:20 |
Status: | Published online |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:209003 |