1. The differential relation of childhood maltreatment to stress sensitization in adolescent and young adult depression
- Author
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Cherie L. La Rocque, Kate L. Harkness, and R. Michael Bagby
- Subjects
Adult ,Male ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Adolescent ,Social Psychology ,Young Adult ,Surveys and Questionnaires ,Interview, Psychological ,Developmental and Educational Psychology ,medicine ,Humans ,Child Abuse ,Young adult ,Child ,Psychological abuse ,Psychiatry ,Pathological ,Depression (differential diagnoses) ,Sensitization ,Analysis of Variance ,Depression ,Stressor ,Age Factors ,Adolescent Development ,Psychiatry and Mental health ,Logistic Models ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,Sexual abuse ,Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health ,Etiology ,Female ,Psychology ,Stress, Psychological ,Clinical psychology - Abstract
Childhood maltreatment has been shown to have a stronger etiological relation to depression onset in adolescence than in adulthood. We propose that a maltreatment history may more strongly sensitize individuals to the depressogenic effects of proximal stressful life events in adolescence compared to adulthood. In an amalgamated sample of 176 unipolar depressed adolescents (age 12-17) and emerging adults (age 18-29), we examined the moderating role of age group on the relation of childhood maltreatment to sensitization to stressors that occurred just prior to episode onset. Among adolescents, but not among adults, those with a maltreatment history reported a lower severity level of life events prior to episode onset than reported by those without such a history. Further, this relation was specific to emotional abuse, and not physical or sexual abuse. We suggest that the pathological mechanisms associated with translating childhood maltreatment to depression may differ across developmental periods.
- Published
- 2014