Determinants of Resilience: Mental Health, Maltreatment and Adaptive Behavior

描述(申请人提供)：心理健康，儿童虐待和适应行为结果暴露在虐待是一个普遍的重大生活事件和巨大的儿童心理健康风险。对于被寄养的受虐待儿童来说，病理风险尤其重大，了解寄养人口取得积极结果的途径至关重要。使用压力和应对的交易模型，其中关键个人和环境变量之间的相互关系用于预测结果，该项目研究暴露在虐待和寄养中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、背景和对重大生活事件的评估在预测寄养虐待儿童适应行为中的作用，以及(B)确定应对方式评估对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关系的理论模型来为关于压力和应对的文献提供信息。这项研究将阐明我们的基础科学需要了解遭受虐待、生活在寄养家庭和心理健康结果之间的关系，以及我们对可能的弹性和积极适应机制的干预意识。与公共健康相关：这项研究测试了暴露在虐待中的儿童的韧性是如何发展的。

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.