Risk-Taking Propensity as Mediator in the Relationship between Childhood Trauma and Alcohol Use During Early Adolescence

Gilbert, Jonathan Ross

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Year:: 2020
Contributor:: Gilbert, Jonathan Ross (creator); Operario, Don (Advisor); Kahler, Christopher W. (Reader); Brown University. Behavioral and Social Sciences Department (sponsor)
Genre:: theses
Subject:: Alcohol; Health behavior in adolescence; Sensation seeking; childhood trauma; Risk-taking (Psychology) in adolescence; Ballon analogue risk task for youth (BART-Y); sensation seeking scale (SSS); childhood trauma questionaire
Extent:: 8, 37 p.

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Abstract:: Background: Although an abundance of research demonstrates that disinhibition may act as a mechanism in the childhood trauma-to-risk behavior relationship, little attention has been paid to types of trauma other than physical and sexual abuse. Because evidence suggests that emotional abuse may be one of the most destructive and pervasive forms of maltreatment, further research is needed to determine whether similar mechanisms are present in the emotional abuse-to-risk behavior relationship, particularly among early adolescents where such patterns of problematic behaviors are only starting to emerge. Purpose: The present study aims to expand upon the literature by investigating the roles of risk-taking propensity and sensation seeking as indicators of disinhibition in the relationship between childhood emotional abuse and alcohol-related risk behaviors in adolescence. Methods: A total of 246 5th - 8th grade adolescents between the ages of 9 to 13 completed the Brief Sensation Seeking Scale (SSS), the childhood emotional abuse (CEA) subscale of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (28-item version) and a variety of behavioral and psychological measures associated with alcohol-related risk taking behavior. The participants also engaged in a computerized decision-making task, the Balloon Analogue Risk Task for Youth (BART-Y), designed to assess risk-taking propensity. Mediation analysis was employed to uncover hypothesized causal pathways between childhood trauma and alcohol-related risk behavior. Results: Findings indicated that self-reported emotional abuse during childhood was positively related to self-reported engagement in alcohol-related risk behaviors (B = .30) and sensation seeking (B = .26) in early adolescence. Childhood emotional abuse was not significantly related to risk-taking propensity in early adolescence as assessed by BART-Y. Further, while sensation seeking mediated the relationship between childhood trauma history and alcohol-related risk behaviors in early adolescence, risk-taking did not. Conclusions: Risk-taking propensity may not be a useful mechanism for understanding the relationship between all domains of childhood trauma and subsequent maladaptive behavior in adolescence. However, there is a point of convergence on the role of sensation seeking as an integral pathway in the childhood trauma-to-risk behavior relationship. There is a need for larger-scale future studies that incorporate multiple domains of childhood trauma and utilize multiple laboratory measures of risk-taking propensity in a prospective format.
Notes:: Thesis (Sc. M.)--Brown University, 2020

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Citation

Gilbert, Jonathan Ross, "Risk-Taking Propensity as Mediator in the Relationship between Childhood Trauma and Alcohol Use During Early Adolescence" (2020). Public Health Theses and Dissertations. Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library. https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:n7r6zje5/

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Public Health Theses and Dissertations

Theses and Dissertations for the Public Health department.
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