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Poster #18 - Dynamic Processes Between Irritability and Trauma Exposure Within the Family System: A Network Approach

Fri, March 24, 8:30 to 9:15am, Salt Palace Convention Center, Floor: 1, Hall A-B

Abstract

Introduction: Irritability is a common symptom across pediatric disorders (Stringaris et al., 2018) and predicts longitudinal risk of anxiety, depression, suicidality, and academic underachievement in adolescence and adulthood (Vidal-Ribas et al., 2016). Despite the impairing nature of irritability, its etiology remains unclear. Exposure to trauma in childhood has been linked to multiple forms of psychopathology and difficulties in emotion regulation (McLaughlin & Lambert, 2017). However, few studies have investigated the link between trauma exposure and irritability. Even less is known about how the trauma exposure and irritability of one generation (e.g., parents) transmits to the next (e.g., child).

Objective: Our primary objective was to examine associations between trauma exposure and irritability in parents and children using network analysis. We further explored the role of parental psychopathology (i.e., anxiety and depression) and emotion dysregulation in the associations between trauma exposure and irritability in both parents and children. Given the complex dynamics between trauma, irritability, and psychopathology within the family system, network approaches are suitable to uncover the structure of the interrelations among these constructs (Borsboom et al., 2021).

Method: Our sample contains 634 families (one child per family) referred to the Fathers for Change program, an intimate partner violence intervention by the Connecticut Department of Children and Families. The sample included children (56.3% male, Mean age = 9.67± 3.7) from diverse racial and ethnic groups (34.6% white, 37.5% Hispanic, 20.4% black, and 7.4% multi-racial or other). Both mothers and fathers reported their own (1) childhood and adulthood trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms (Structured Trauma-Related Experiences and Symptoms Screener [STRESS]); (2) current anxiety, depression, and stress (Depression Anxiety Stress Scales); (3) emotion dysregulation (Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale); (4) irritability (Multidimensional Anger Inventory); and (5) inter-partner violence (Abusive Behavior Inventory). One caregiver also reported on the child’s irritability using a select item ("often loses temper”) from the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Children reported their own (1) trauma and PTSD symptoms (STRESS) and (2) irritability (select SDQ item). Network analysis was conducted in R with responses from the aforementioned measures as nodes.

Results: Child irritability was related to 8 nodes in the network (Figure 1) and positively correlated with child’s number of distinct trauma types (estimate = .30), mother’s experience of psychological abuse (.06), father’s experience of psychological abuse (.02), mother’s stress (.02) and depression (.01), and father's PTSD symptoms (.01). Child irritability was negatively correlated with father’s and mother’s self-reported use of physical violence (-.04 for both). Network structure and estimates were highly stable and accurately estimated.

Discussion: The strongest connection to child irritability was child’s number of trauma types, suggesting that cumulative experiences of trauma may play a role in child irritability. Parental experience of psychological abuse, rather than physical abuse, was also associated with child irritability, although it may be subject to under-reporting biases in physical violence. Future studies may benefit from adopting network approaches to explore dynamics between trauma and psychopathology within the family system to further validate these findings.

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