TY - JOUR
T1 - Gender-Moderated Pathways From Childhood Abuse and Neglect to Late-Adolescent Substance Use
AU - Kobulsky, Julia M.
AU - Yoon, Susan
AU - Bright, Charlotte L.
AU - Lee, Guijin
AU - Nam, Boyoung
N1 - Funding Information:
This document includes data from the Consortium of Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN), which was funded by the Office on Child Abuse and Neglect (OCAN), Children’s Bureau, Administration for Children and Families, and the Department of Health and Human Services (The National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect [NCCAN]). The data were made available by the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect, Cornell University (Ithaca, New York, USA), and have been used with permission. The collector of the original data, the funder, NDACAN, and Cornell University and their agents or employees bear no responsibility for the analyses or interpretations presented here.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies
PY - 2018/10
Y1 - 2018/10
N2 - Substantial research has linked childhood maltreatment to the development of substance use in adolescence. However, gender differences in the mechanisms that connect child abuse and neglect to substance use remain unclear. In this study, we applied multiple-group structural equation modeling in a sample of 1,161 youths (boys, n = 552; girls, n = 609) from the Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN) to examine gender differences in the associations between childhood abuse and neglect exposure from ages 0–12 years and substance use severity at age 18 as mediated by early substance use at age 14 and psychological symptoms (anger, anxiety, and depression) at age 16. In both genders, neglect directly predicted substance use severity, β =.25, p <.001 for boys and β =.17, p =.007 for girls; and early substance use, β =.03, p =.002 for boys and β =.06, p =.005 for girls; and anger mediated this association, β =.10, p <.001 for boys and β =.06, p =.005 for girls. Anger mediated paths from abuse in boys, β =.06, p =.018. In girls, early substance use mediated the path from abuse to substance use severity, β =.06, p =.008, with the mediated effect and direct path from abuse to early substance use significantly moderated by gender. For substance use severity, R2 =.26 for girls and R2 =.27 for boys. These findings demonstrate the prominence of neglect in predicting substance use severity and gender differences in paths from abuse.
AB - Substantial research has linked childhood maltreatment to the development of substance use in adolescence. However, gender differences in the mechanisms that connect child abuse and neglect to substance use remain unclear. In this study, we applied multiple-group structural equation modeling in a sample of 1,161 youths (boys, n = 552; girls, n = 609) from the Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN) to examine gender differences in the associations between childhood abuse and neglect exposure from ages 0–12 years and substance use severity at age 18 as mediated by early substance use at age 14 and psychological symptoms (anger, anxiety, and depression) at age 16. In both genders, neglect directly predicted substance use severity, β =.25, p <.001 for boys and β =.17, p =.007 for girls; and early substance use, β =.03, p =.002 for boys and β =.06, p =.005 for girls; and anger mediated this association, β =.10, p <.001 for boys and β =.06, p =.005 for girls. Anger mediated paths from abuse in boys, β =.06, p =.018. In girls, early substance use mediated the path from abuse to substance use severity, β =.06, p =.008, with the mediated effect and direct path from abuse to early substance use significantly moderated by gender. For substance use severity, R2 =.26 for girls and R2 =.27 for boys. These findings demonstrate the prominence of neglect in predicting substance use severity and gender differences in paths from abuse.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85055141379&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/jts.22326
DO - 10.1002/jts.22326
M3 - Article
C2 - 30338572
AN - SCOPUS:85055141379
SN - 0894-9867
VL - 31
SP - 654
EP - 664
JO - Journal of Traumatic Stress
JF - Journal of Traumatic Stress
IS - 5
ER -