Poster #131 - Child Maltreatment Among Latinx and White Youth: Profiles of Behavior and Emotion Regulation

• In Event: 1-005 - Poster Session 01
  In Poster Session: PS 01 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

Childhood maltreatment (CM) is associated with deficits in emotion regulation (ER) and behavior regulation (BR; Banducci, Hoffman, Lejuez, & Koenen, 2014; Heleniak, Jenness, Vander Stoep, McCauley, & McLaughlin, 2016), and impairments in one form of regulation may contribute to dysfunction in another (Shields, Cicchetti, & Ryan, 1994). Furthermore, self-regulation may differ by ethnic group, as collectivistic cultures (e.g., Latinx) engage in more ER than individualistic cultures (e.g., White; Ford & Mauss, 2015). Given that Latinx youth are disproportionately impacted by CM relative to their White counterparts (Lauderdale, Valiunas, & Anderson, 1980), patterns of ER/BR in relation to CM among these groups need to be examined.

This study investigated profiles of BR/ER among 500 emerging-adults. Participants were 48.2% Latinx, 23.0% White, 13.4% Asian, 5.6% Black, and 5.8% Mixed (4.0% missing data). The Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (Patton et al.,1995) and the Difficulties with Emotion Regulation Scale (Gratz & Roemer, 2004) measured BR and ER. The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (Bernstein & Fink,1998) measured exposure to CM: emotional abuse (EA), physical abuse (PA), sexual abuse (SA), emotional neglect (EN), and physical neglect (PN).

Latent profile models were compared to identify the most parsimonious solution. The 5-profile model fit best across all indices (AIC = 8017.63, A-BIC = 8034.28, entropy = 0.74, LMR = 0.10), and was selected over the 4-profile model (AIC = 8028.19, A-BIC = 8041.71, entropy = 0.72, LMR = 0.01; see Table 1 for profiles).

Krustal-Wallis H tests assessed differences in CM and between profiles of BR/ER on CM for Latinx and White youth separately. Latinx experienced more CM than White youth. For both groups, there were significant differences between profiles of BR/ER and experienced EA and EN. For PN, these differences were only significant for Latinx youth. Overall, youth with profiles depicting more difficulties with BR/ER had increased CM when compared to those with less BR/ER difficulties (Table 2). Furthermore, Latinx youth with average difficulties in BR/high difficulties ER experienced less EA than those with high difficulties in BR/ER. Latinx youth with low difficulties BR/high difficulties ER had higher SA, EA, and EN than all other profiles, though the small number of individuals in this group rendered these comparisons non-significant.

Within the current sample, Latinx youth were at an increased risk for CM. Consistent with previous research, youth with higher reported levels of CM reported more difficulties with self-regulation. Specifically, emotional types of CM were associated with self-regulation difficulties (Burns, Jackson, & Harding, 2010). The trends observed for Latinx youth with low difficulties BR/High ER difficulties highlight that emotional CM types may have a particularly strong impact on development of ER, however the finding that EA was higher among Latinx youth with both high BR and ER difficulties compared to those with just high ER difficulties reinforces that both BR and ER are separate outgrowths of CM. Notably, these specific ER vs. BR profile differences were not observed among White youth, suggesting that the two types of regulation may be more cohesive among White youth.

Authors

• Cynthia Navarro, Utah State University
  Presenting Author

• Luna F Ueno, University at Albany, SUNY
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sara R. Berzenski, California State University, Northridge
  Non-Presenting Author