Conceptualizing & Analyzing Childhood Adversity

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

This symposium presents three new investigations regarding the conceptualization and analysis of childhood adversity (CA). Paper One focused on the utility of conceptualizing CA as threat and deprivation (McLaughlin et al., 2014). Results revealed that threat and deprivation differentially attenuated associations between neural and physiological indices of emotion reactivity in a sample of 122 adolescent girls. Paper Two compared the predictive utility of two different conceptualizations (i.e., threat-deprivation-unpredictability vs. threat-deprivation; Ellis et al., 2022) compared to a traditional cumulative CA score as related to later functioning. Results indicated that a latent CA variable (using threat-deprivation-unpredictability) yielded larger coefficient and R2 values compared to a traditional cumulative score. However, high intercorrelations between childhood adversities posed methodological problems for both approaches. Paper Three investigated the utility of three novel CA typologies and examined the extent to which the predictive ability of these typologies on later child functioning changed depending on how adversity was analyzed (e.g., dichotomous sum score vs. other-rated severity) in a longitudinal sample of 250 child-caregiver dyads. Results indicated that the typology variables were differentially predictive of later child functioning, but the different approaches to scoring the CA variables were largely equivalent. Together, these papers demonstrate the utility of different CA conceptualizations and the need for ongoing discussion regarding how best to conceptualize (rather than analyze) CA. Joined by a renowned expert on CA measurement and analysis, this symposium will highlight the salience of various CA conceptualizations and offer suggestions for future CA research.

Sub Unit

• Methods, History, Theory

Chair

• Jessie Bridgewater, University of California - Riverside

Discussant

• Gary W Evans, Cornell University

Individual Presentations

• Threat and Deprivation Uniquely Moderate the Associations Between Neural and Physiological Indices of Emotion Reactivity - Presenting Author: Meredith Gruhn, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Adam Bryant Miller; Matteo Giletta, Ghent University; Paul David Hastings, University of California - Davis; Matthew K. Nock, Harvard University; Karen Rudolph, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; George M Slavich, University of California, Los Angeles; Mitchell J Prinstein, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Margaret A. Sheridan, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Dimensional Analyses of Childhood Adversity: Contributions and Challenges - Presenting Author: Joshua Mersky, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee; ChienTi Plummer Lee, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee; Colleen Janczewski, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee

• Comparing Approaches to Conceptualizing and Analyzing Childhood Adversity - Presenting Author: Jessie Bridgewater, University of California - Riverside; Sara R. Berzenski, California State University - Northridge; AnnaMaria Boullion, University of California - Riverside; Alexandra Sara Aringer, University of California - Riverside; Tuppett M. Yates, University of California - Riverside