Relational Health with Peers as a Buffer between Childhood Maltreatment and Trauma Symptoms among College Women: Brief Report

ABSTRACT

Despite knowledge of long-term risks associated with child maltreatment among women, relatively less is known about protective factors that buffer against trauma sequelae in young adulthood. Our cross-sectional study investigated relational health with peers as a potential protective factor for women in the relation between child maltreatment (emotional abuse, physical abuse, emotional neglect, physical neglect) and young adult trauma symptoms. An ethnically diverse sample of college women (N = 257, M age = 19.74) completed self-report questionnaires related to childhood maltreatment, current trauma symptoms, and relational peer health. Relational health with peers buffered against the development of trauma symptoms from emotional and physical abuse but not from emotional or physical neglect. Findings demonstrate the importance of fostering healthy peer connections for young adult women exposed to child abuse. Clinical implications for developing interventions to facilitate relational health are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Childhood maltreatment
• college women
• relational health
• protective factor

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank their families (Jeffrey, Clara, and Henry; John, Miriam, and Elise), for being understanding during the pandemic when we were all at home together and we needed to work!

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical Standards and Informed Consent

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation [institutional and national] and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.”

Additional information

Funding

The study was supported by a Brachman-Hoffman grant from Wellesley College to Sally Theran.