Maternal Trauma History and Obstetric Outcomes
A mother’s mental health can have substantial impacts on her pregnancy, delivery and her baby’s health. Previous studies have demonstrated a link between depression and/or anxiety and higher rates of preterm birth and lower birth weight. Most studies, however, do not systematically assess traumatic life events. This is a significant oversight given that depression and anxiety often occur together, and may be a direct consequence of trauma exposure.
Research Methods: Examples of Recent Studies on Childhood Victimization Employing the Technique of Latent Class Analysis
StressPoints
Childhood victimization experiences, including abuse and neglect, are associated with short-and long-term impairments in cognitive, affective, and psychosocial performance. Often studies addressing these associations focus on a specific type of victimization (e.g., sexual abuse) despite the tendency for different types of victimization experiences to co-occur. Such accumulating victimization experiences have an aggregate effect on a child’s functioning and well-being. Consequently, it is imperative that researchers examine the combined effect of co-occurring types of victimization on child/adolescent and adult psychopathology.