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。随着长期受到压力的虐待儿童的发展，他们面临着使用药物、滥用和上瘾的巨大风险。因此，对长期应激虐待儿童的调查为描绘因压力导致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产生不同的负面影响，了解慢性应激对多种发育系统的影响对于确定药物滥用的易感性至关重要。本研究以400名10-12岁慢性应激虐待儿童和400名非虐待儿童为研究对象，探讨慢性应激对儿童神经内分泌调节、注意网络、执行功能和情绪调节能力的影响。孩子们将参加研究日营，还将评估同伴关系、个性组织、精神病理学和药物使用情况。将从课堂教师那里获得对儿童在学校的功能的评估，儿童的母亲也将提供有关家庭中其他压力来源的信息。基于发展精神病理学的观点，并利用以人为中心的方法，我们希望确定不同形式的应激诱导的物质使用脆弱性。将调查这些形式的脆弱性在长期受到压力的虐待儿童中聚集的程度，这些儿童表现出不同类型的个性、组织和精神病理。还将调查其他形式的压力暴露和促进药物使用的背景对具有不同形式脆弱性的儿童使用药物的敏感性的影响。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.