Delineating Childhood Adversity: Examining the Unique Effects of Threat, Deprivation, and Unpredictability on Social, Emotional, and Cognitive Processes Open Access

Abstract

The link between childhood adversity and poor outcomes is well established, but less is known about the mechanisms that underlie these associations and whether they are specific to different types of adversity exposures. The current study utilized a dimensions of adversity approach that distinguishes adversity experiences along dimensions of threat, deprivation, and unpredictability and examined whether these dimensions have distinct effects on social, emotional, and cognitive risk processes. Results were compared to the prevailing cumulative-risk approach using a total adversity sum score. Participants (n=562, mean age = 18.4) were drawn from a large study of youth at risk for serious mental illness (NAPLS-3). Measures of childhood adversity, working memory performance, emotional expression and experience, social anhedonia and social functioning were completed at the baseline visit. Results revealed dimension-specific association between threat and deprivation and social functioning as well as an association between cumulative adversity exposure and working memory. These findings underscore the importance of both dimension-specific and cumulative impacts of childhood adversity exposures on important social and cognitive risk pathways. A clearer understanding of the specific impact childhood adversity exposures have on risk mechanisms is critical to improving our prevention and treatment efforts. 

Table of Contents

Introduction..................................................................................................................................... 1 Methods........................................................................................................................................... 7 Results........................................................................................................................................... 12

Discussion ..................................................................................................................................... 14 References..................................................................................................................................... 21

Tables ............................................................................................................................................ 33 

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	Psychology
Degree	B.A.
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Psychology, Clinical Psychology, Developmental
Keyword	childhood adversity threat deprivation unpredictability
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Walker, Elaine, Emory University
Committee Members	LoPilato, Allison, Emory University Craighead, W. Edward , Emory University Konner, Melvin , Emory University

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