Can parents reduce the negative impact of childhood trauma?
Nov 5, 2019
Young people who have experienced child abuse often struggle to cope in healthy ways. Many turn to alcohol, at even higher rates than the general young-adult population. What can concerned parents do?
To find out, we conducted a study to examine how maternal and paternal warmth affects the impact of childhood exposure to maltreatment on alcohol-related problems in young adulthood. Our research reveals that family protective factors, like parental warmth, can mitigate the effects of child abuse and actually reduce the rate at which survivors develop alcohol-related problems.
We found that the association between emotional abuse and alcohol-related problems was weaker among individuals with higher levels of paternal warmth. For more information, please see our published article!