Chronic Stress of Maltreatment: Drug Use Vulnerability

描述（由申请人提供）：对发育中的儿童来说，最深刻的慢性压力形式之一是遭受虐待和忽视。随着长期受到压力虐待的儿童的发展，他们有很大的药物使用、滥用和成瘾的风险。因此，对长期受到压力虐待的儿童的调查为描述压力诱发的物质使用和滥用脆弱性的发展提供了一个自然的实验。慢性应激对心理和生物发育有多种负面影响，了解慢性应激对多种发育系统的影响是确定药物滥用易感性的关键。本研究将400名10- 12岁的儿童与400名未受虐待的儿童进行对比，以确定慢性应激对神经内分泌调节、注意网络、执行功能能力和情绪调节能力的影响。孩子们将参加一个研究日营，同伴关系、人格组织、精神病理学和物质使用也将被评估。将从课堂教师那里获得儿童在学校的功能评价，儿童的母亲也将提供关于家庭中其他压力来源的信息。基于发展精神病理学的观点和利用以人为本的方法，我们期望确定不同形式的压力诱导的物质使用脆弱性。这些形式的脆弱性在表现出不同类型的人格组织和精神病理的长期压力虐待儿童中的聚集程度将被调查。还将调查额外形式的压力暴露和促进吸毒的环境对具有不同形式脆弱性的儿童对药物使用的易感性的影响。这些发现将为预防和干预举措提供信息。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): One of the most profound forms of chronic stress for the developing child is being subjected to abuse and neglect. As chronically stressed maltreated children develop, they are at substantial risk for substance use, abuse, and addiction. Thus, investigation of chronically stressed maltreated children provides a natural experiment for delineating the development of stress-induced vulnerabilities for substance use and abuse. Chronic stress exerts diverse negative effects on psychological and biological development, and understanding the impact of chronic stress on multiple developmental systems is critical for determining susceptibility to drug abuse. In this investigation, 400 chronically stressed maltreated 10-to 12-year-old children will be contrasted with 400 nonmaltreated children in order to determine the effects of chronic stress on neuroendocrine regulation, attention networks, executive function abilities, and emotion regulation capacities. Children will participate in a research day camp, and peer relations, personality organization, psychopathology, and substance use also will be assessed. Evaluations of child functioning in school will be obtained from classroom teachers, and the children's mothers also will provide information on additional sources of stress in the home. Based on a developmental psychopathology perspective and utilizing a person-centered approach, we expect to identify different forms of stress-induced vulnerability for substance use. The extent of aggregation of these forms of vulnerability within chronically stressed maltreated children who exhibit different types of personality organization and psychopathology will be investigated. The effects of additional forms of stress exposure and of a drug use promoting context on the susceptibility to substance use among children with different forms of vulnerability also will be investigated. The findings will hold promise for informing prevention and intervention initiatives.