2-143 - Adversity, Victimization, and Aggression: Longitudinal Impact on Children’s Health and Psychosocial Adaptation

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Adverse family contexts and victimization are associated with a myriad of deleterious consequences impinging on children’s physical and mental health, and psychosocial adaptation (Stack et al., 2017; Wekerle, 2018). Framed within the developmental psychopathology model, the four innovative longitudinal studies composing this symposium go beyond the identification of associations and underline specific processes for risk and resilience and pathways linking victimization and adversity to children’s later outcomes in diverse at-risk populations across child age. The first paper examines the long-term impact (30+ years) of parents’ histories of childhood aggression on family context and children’s health in an at-risk disadvantaged community sample. The transactions between mother-to-child verbal/physical aggression and children’s internalizing problems over a period of 10+ years are investigated in the second paper using cross lag panel analysis. The third paper addresses the pathways from childhood maltreatment to substance misuse in child-welfare involved youths, examining posttraumatic stress symptoms and coping strategies. Finally, the interplay between posttraumatic stress symptoms, hostile attributions, and peer victimization in a sample of school-aged child sexual abuse victims are investigated. Taken together, this diverse but cohesive set of cutting-edge studies outline negative sequences of events that contribute to undermining the potential for positive development and resilience in children and adolescents growing up under adverse conditions and exposed to violence and aggression. Understanding the underlying mechanisms of these trajectories allows for the identification of tangible targets for prevention and intervention strategies and policy development that aim to disrupt negative development trajectories and foster positive development and adaptation.

Sub Unit

• Health, Growth, Injury

Chair

• Rachel Langevin, McGill University

Individual Presentations

• Childhood Aggression and the Transfer of Health Risk to Offspring in Disadvantaged Families - Presenting Author: Dale M. Stack, Concordia University; Non-Presenting Author: Lisa A. Serbin, Concordia University; Non-Presenting Author: Kathleen Kennedy-Turner, Concordia University; Non-Presenting Author: Daniel J. Dickson, Concordia University; Non-Presenting Author: Jane E. Ledingham, University of Ottawa; Non-Presenting Author: Alex E. Schwartzman, Concordia University

• Transactions between Mother-to-Child Verbal and Physical Aggression and Children’s Internalizing Problems - Presenting Author: Rachel Langevin, McGill University; Non-Presenting Author: Dale M. Stack, Concordia University; Non-Presenting Author: Daniel J. Dickson, Concordia University; Non-Presenting Author: Lisa A. Serbin, Concordia University

• Investigating the Path from Childhood Maltreatment to Alcohol Misuse in a Sample of Child Welfare-Involved Youth - Presenting Author: Christine Wekerle, McMaster University; Non-Presenting Author: Tristan Park, Dalhousie University; Non-Presenting Author: Kara Thompson, St. Francis Xavier University; Non-Presenting Author: Mohammed Al-Hamdani, Dalhousie University; Non-Presenting Author: Savanah Smith, McMaster University; Non-Presenting Author: Amanda Hudson, Dalhousie University; Non-Presenting Author: Sherry H. Stewart, Dalhousie University

• Hostile Attributions as Mediators of the Relationship between PTSD and Later Peer Victimization in Child Victims of Sexual Abuse - Presenting Author: Martine Hébert, Université du Québec à Montréal; Non-Presenting Author: Amélie Tremblay-Perreault, Université du Québec à Montréal