Poster #202 - Gender Differences in Trauma Exposure and Coping in Low-Income, Urban Youth

• In Event: 1-005 - Poster Session 01
  In Poster Session: PS 01 Section - Social, Emotional, Personality

Integrative Statement

Adolescents who experience traumatic events are at risk for developing harmful coping strategies to deal with everyday stressors (Vaughn-Coaxum et al., 2018). Low-income, urban youth are particularly at risk of experiencing multiple severe stressors, such as neighborhood violence, family disruption, and chronic interpersonal stressors (Urban Institute, 2015). Little research, however, has explored the use of adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies of minority, urban youth who are exposed to trauma. Some research suggests that trauma-affected females may be more at risk than trauma-affected males for using avoidance-oriented strategies (Araya et al., 2007), but this question has not been investigated with urban adolescents. This cross-sectional study explored the relation between trauma exposure and coping strategies in a sample of urban, low-income youth, and how these associations may differ by sex.
As part of a larger randomized controlled trial, data were collected from 274 eighth grade students in thirteen urban middle schools (girls = 56%; African-American = 70%). Students reported their lifetime exposure to 8 types of trauma, including the death or incarceration of a parent, physical abuse, and discrimination (Bethell et al., 2017). Students also reported how often they used specific coping strategies in response to stress on a 4-point scale, ranging from “I usually don’t do this at all” to “I usually do this a lot” (Brief COPE; Carver et al., 1993).
Multiple linear regressions were conducted to identify whether exposure to trauma predicted use of adaptive or maladaptive coping strategies, with sex as a moderator. Results showed that greater trauma exposure was associated with higher use of maladaptive coping strategies (Table 1). However, analyses showed no significant main or interaction effects of sex and trauma exposure on adaptive coping. Regressions of specific maladaptive coping strategies showed a main effect of trauma exposure on substance use and behavioral disengagement. Moreover, an interaction effect was seen on substance use, where girls, but not boys, who reported greater exposure to trauma were more likely to use substances as a coping strategy. Further analyses showed that specific traumas were associated with increased substance use coping for girls, but not for boys, including having a parent or guardian die, witnessing physical abuse between parents, and witnessing or being a victim of neighborhood violence (Table 2). There were no significant differences in exposure to these traumas by sex, nor was there a significant difference in reported substance use (i.e., cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana, and blunts) by sex.
Results from this study support and extend an emerging literature showing that higher levels of trauma exposure are associated with greater maladaptive coping (Vaughn-Coaxum et al., 2018). In addition, consistent with a study of adults (Araya et al., 2007), girls in our sample appear to have a stronger association between certain trauma experiences and using illicit substances as a coping mechanism, even though they were no more likely than boys to use substances or experience traumatic events. Longitudinal research is needed to better understand the relation of trauma to both maladaptive and adaptive coping strategies for urban youth.

Authors

• Lindsey Webb, Johns Hopkins University, School of Public Health
  Presenting Author

• Laura K Clary, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
  Non-Presenting Author

• Tamar Mendelson, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
  Non-Presenting Author