Open AccessChildhood Trauma History and Negative Social Experiences in College
Author(s) -
Lyndsay N. Jenkins,
Tara McNeal,
Joshua Drayer,
Qi Wang
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of child and adolescent trauma
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.583
H-Index - 19
eISSN - 1936-153X
pISSN - 1936-1521
DOI - 10.1007/s40653-020-00315-z
Subject(s) - harassment , psychology , mental health , stressor , clinical psychology , suicide prevention , poison control , injury prevention , association (psychology) , structural equation modeling , occupational safety and health , interpersonal relationship , public health , developmental psychology , psychiatry , medicine , social psychology , medical emergency , psychotherapist , statistics , mathematics , nursing , pathology
While there is literature documenting the association between childhood trauma and later sexual assault or interpersonal violence victimization, less is known about risk of less severe, but still negative, victimization experiences such as sexual harassment, hazing, and bullying in college. The goal of this study was to explore the association between self-reported childhood trauma (both personally experienced and witnessed) and negative social experiences in college-age adults (e.g., sexual harassment, hazing, and bullying), and the role that internalizing difficulties (i.e., depression and stress) plays in this association. A sample of 620 college-aged adults (ages 18-25) was recruited. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to investigate two models concerning direct and indirect childhood trauma experience. The models demonstrated significant positive relations between experiences of childhood trauma (both direct and indirect) and negative social experiences. Internalizing difficulties (i.e., depression and stress) mediated the relation between indirect childhood trauma and negative social experiences, but it did not significantly mediate the relation between direct childhood trauma and negative social experiences. These findings help to inform prevention efforts and have important implications for both school and community based mental health providers.