Determinants of Resilience: Mental Health, Maltreatment and Adaptive Behavior

描述（由申请人提供）：心理健康、儿童虐待和适应性行为结果遭受虐待是普遍存在的重大生活事件，对儿童来说是巨大的心理健康风险。对于被寄养的受虐待儿童，病理风险尤为显著，了解寄养人口走向积极结果的途径至关重要。使用压力和应对的交易模型，其中关键的个人和环境变量之间的相互关系可以预测结果，该项目研究了遭受虐待和寄养的儿童如何表现出积极的适应能力。本研究的目的是：(a)纵向考察资源、环境和主要生活事件的评价在预测寄养环境中遭受虐待的儿童的适应行为方面的作用，以及(b)确定评价对应对方式产生适应行为的相对重要性。该项目的结果将通过在寄养儿童样本中测试压力和应对关系的理论模型来为有关压力和应对的文献提供信息。这项研究将澄清我们的基础科学需求，以了解遭受虐待、寄养生活和心理健康结果之间的关系，以及我们对恢复力和积极调整可能机制的干预意识。公共卫生相关性：该研究测试了遭受虐待的儿童的恢复力是如何发展的。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Mental Health, Child Maltreatment and Adaptive Behavior Outcomes Exposure to maltreatment is a pervasive major life event and a tremendous mental health risk for children. For maltreated children placed in foster care, the risk for pathology is especially significant and understanding the pathways to positive outcomes for the foster-care population is crucial. Using a transactional model of stress and coping, wherein the mutual relationships among key personal and environmental variables operate to predict outcomes, this project addresses how children exposed to maltreatment and foster care display positive adjustment. The aims for the study are to (a) longitudinally examine the roles of resources, context, and appraisal of major life events in predicting adaptive behavior of children exposed to maltreatment living in foster care, and (b) determine the relative importance of appraisal on coping style for producing adaptive behavior. The results of this project will inform the literature on stress and coping by testing a theoretical model of the relations in a sample of children in foster care. This research will clarify our basic-science need to understand the relation between experiencing maltreatment, living in foster care, and mental health outcomes and our intervention-minded awareness of possible mechanisms for resilience and positive adjustment. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The study tests how resilience develops in children exposed to maltreatment.