Childhood and Adult Sexual Violence Exposures as Predictors of PTSD, Dissociation, and Substance Use in Women in Jail.

Women involved in the criminal legal system report high rates of interpersonal violence, particularly sexual violence, and mental health problems. Although existing research has linked experiences of interpersonal violence to multiple negative mental health outcomes, few researchers have examined concurrent psychopathology as an outcome of child and adult sexual violence in system-involved women. The purpose of this study was to examine child sexual abuse (CSA) and adult sexual violence, while controlling for other forms of interpersonal violence, as predictors of current symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PSTD), substance use disorder (SUD), and dissociation in women in jail in the Mountain West. Randomly selected participants (N = 146) completed clinician-administered measures of trauma histories and mental health symptoms. The majority of the women (73%) reported experiences of CSA and about half reported experiences of adult sexual violence. Over half of the women reported symptoms consistent with current probable PTSD, about 20% reported dissociation symptoms in a clinical range, and over 70% met criteria for a SUD in the past year. The proposed model was tested with path analysis. CSA significantly predicted current symptoms of PTSD while adult sexual violence exposure predicted symptoms of SUD and dissociation. These results illustrate the high rates of sexual violence exposure as well as the complexity of mental health needs associated with these exposures in system-involved women. Findings highlight the need to comprehensively assess incarcerated women's trauma exposure and psychological distress to better meet the needs of this population.

Sleep Characteristics and Behavioral Problems Among Children of Alcoholics and Controls.

BACKGROUND: Past research has indicated that both sleep difficulties and a parental history of alcoholism increase the risk of behavioral problems. But it is not known whether sleep difficulties differentially increase the risk of problem behaviors among children of alcoholics (COAs) and controls. We compared multiple measures of sleep and the relationships between sleep and behavioral problems in these 2 groups of children. METHODS: One hundred and fifteen children aged 8 to 12 (67% COAs; 56% girls; Mage  = 10.85, SDage  = 1.51) participated in this study. Data presented here were taken from Time 1 of a larger prospective study designed to understand the relationship between sleep and alcohol use. All participants were naïve to alcohol and other illicit drugs. Participants were asked to wear an actigraph watch on their nondominant wrist for 1 week. Parents completed the Pediatric Sleep Questionnaire and the Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist. RESULTS: Parents of COAs were more likely to rate their children as overtired compared with parents of non-COAs. Structural equation modeling analyses focusing on overall internalizing and externalizing problems did not reveal any group differences on the relationships between sleep measures and behavioral problems. Regression analyses focusing on specific behavioral problems showed that longer total sleep time, parental ratings of "sleep more" and "sleep less" than other children interacted with COA status to predict specific behavioral problems. CONCLUSIONS: Sleep difficulties and duration appear to be a general risk factor for behavioral problems in both COAs and non-COAs, yet the relationships between specific sleep parameters and behavioral problems appear to be different between the 2 groups.

Convergence Between the Child Behavior Checklist Sleep Items, Actigraphy and Other Sleep Measures Among Children of Parents with Alcoholic Disorders and Controls.

Purpose: The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) is a widely used instrument of children psychosocial functioning. CBCL sleep items have been used in both clinical settings and research. To date, few empirical studies have examined the relationships between CBCL sleep items and other sleep measures such as actigraphy and validated sleep questionnaires. This study extends the literature by examining these relationships in a group of children of parents with an alcohol use disorder (COAs) and matched controls. Participants and Methods: Two hundred and forty-eight children aged 8-12 (48% COAs; 50% girls; Mean age =10.37 (Standard deviation = 1.47)), participated in this study. Data presented here were taken from Time 1 of a larger prospective study designed to understand the relationship between sleep and alcohol use. All participants were naïve to alcohol and other illicit drugs. Parents completed the Achenbach CBCL and the Pediatric Sleep Questionnaire (PSQ). Participants wore an actigraph watch on their non-dominant wrists for one week and filled out the Youth Self-Report (YSR). Results: Multiple regression analyses showed that CBCL sleep items (eg, "trouble sleeping") correlated with related actigraphy (eg, shorter total sleep time and longer sleep onset latency) and Pediatrics Sleep Questionnaire (PSQ) items (eg, sleep difficulties and daytime sleepiness). Logistic regression analyses indicated that CBCL items (eg, "trouble sleeping) predicted similar items in the Youth Self Report (YSR) (eg, trouble sleeping). Structural equation modeling analyses showed that the latent variable "CBCL sleep" correlated significantly with the latent variables of actigraphy (r = -0.54, p < 0.001), PSQ (r = 0.93, p < 0.001) and YSR (r = 0.38, p < 0.01). These associations were largely the same for COAs and controls. Conclusion: CBCL items were significantly associated with actigraphy variables, a validated sleep measure (PSQ) and youth report of sleep for both COAs and non-COAs.

Parent depressive symptoms and offspring executive functioning.

Introduction: Previous research has found mixed results when assessing the association between a parent's history of depressive symptoms and a child's abilities on measures of executive functioning. The purpose of this study was to replicate and expand upon these findings by evaluating the influence of a parent's depressive symptoms on a young person's executive functioning. Method: As part of a larger study, 135 children (54.8% female, aged 8-12) and one biological parent completed diagnostic screening interviews. Children then completed a brief executive functioning battery. Symptoms endorsed under the past major depressive episode module of the MINI International Neuropsychiatric Interview was used to measure depressive symptoms of parents. Results: While controlling for parent alcohol status and age, gender, intelligence, and current depressive symptoms of the child, linear regression models revealed that the parent's depressive symptoms significantly predicted deficits in Letter-Number Sequencing [b = -0.15 (0.07), p < .05] and Motor Speed [b = -0.17 (0.05), p < .005] on the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS) Trails Test. Parent depressive symptoms had no relationship with inhibition on the D-KEFS Color-Word Interference Test [b = -0.04 (0.14), p = .74] or the Verbal Working Memory subtest of the Stanford-Binet [b = 0.14 (0.12) p = .43]. Greater depressive symptoms in parents were associated with fewer perseverative errors on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task (WCST) [b = 0.73 (0.32), p < .05]. Conclusion: In sum, a parent's depressive symptomatology was differentially associated with a young person's neurocognitive abilities. Clinical implications were discussed.

Insomnia symptoms, cannabis protective behavioral strategies, and hazardous cannabis use among U.S. college students.

Previous research has reported that sleep problems longitudinally predict both onset of cannabis use and cannabis-related problems. However, the mediators of this relationship remain unclear. The present study examined (a) the concurrent relationship between insomnia symptoms and hazardous cannabis use and (b) examined whether use of protective behavioral strategies (PBS) for cannabis mediated this relationship among college student cannabis users. Participants were 984 (69.9% female) college students who reported consuming cannabis at least once in the past month and completed measures of insomnia, cannabis PBS, and cannabis misuse. Data were analyzed by structural equation modeling for binary and count outcomes. The significance of the mediator was evaluated using bias-corrected bootstrap confidence intervals. Insomnia symptoms were associated with an increase in the odds of hazardous cannabis use and possible cannabis use disorder. Cannabis PBS significantly mediated the relationship between insomnia symptoms and hazardous cannabis use, cannabis use disorder symptoms, and cannabis-related problems. Specifically, higher reports of insomnia symptoms were associated with lower use of cannabis PBS; which in turn was associated with an increase in the odds of hazardous cannabis use and possible cannabis use disorder, as well as a higher report of cannabis-related problems. Implications of these findings on the prevention of cannabis use problems among college students in the United States were discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Insomnia symptoms and suicidality in the National Comorbidity Survey - Adolescent Supplement.

OBJECTIVE: In this paper, we examined the relationship between insomnia symptoms and suicidality in a national sample of US adolescents, while controlling for several psychiatric disorders that are known to be associated with suicidality. Additionally, we examined whether insomnia symptoms interact to affect any suicidality variables. METHODS: Study participants were 10,123 adolescents between the ages of 13-18 from the National Comorbidity Survey - Adolescent Supplement (NCS-A). RESULTS: In bivariate analyses, all insomnia symptoms (i.e., difficulty falling asleep, difficulty staying asleep, and early morning awakening) were associated with suicide ideation, plan and attempts. In multivariate analyses, controlling for substance use, mood and anxiety disorders, as well as important covariates, difficulties falling and staying asleep had a significant relationship with 12-month and lifetime suicide variables while early morning awakening did not. CONCLUSIONS: Two of the three insomnia symptoms had a significant association with suicide thoughts and plan even after controlling for psychiatric disorders that were known to affect suicidality. Having trouble falling sleeping or staying asleep had both direct and indirect relationships (via substance use, mood and anxiety disorders) on suicidal behavior. Assessment and treatment of sleep disturbances may reduce the risk for suicidality in adolescents.