A Multimodal Study of Childhood Trauma and Distress Tolerance in Young Adulthood

ABSTRACT

Individuals with a history of childhood trauma experience deficits in emotion regulation. However, few studies have investigated childhood trauma and both perceived (i.e., self-report) and behavioral measures of distress tolerance. The current study evaluated associations between childhood trauma (i.e., physical abuse, sexual abuse, and witnessing family violence) and measures of perceived (Distress Tolerance Scale) and behavioral distress tolerance (i.e., Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test, breath-holding). Participants were 320 undergraduate students with a history of interpersonal trauma (e.g., sexual/physical assault). Structural equation modeling was used to evaluate associations between frequency of childhood trauma type and distress tolerance. Greater childhood physical abuse was associated with higher perceived distress tolerance. Greater levels of witnessing family violence were associated with lower behavioral distress tolerance on the breath-holding task. No significant effects were found for Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test performance. Associations between childhood trauma and emotion regulation likely are complex and warrant further study.

KEYWORDS:

• Child abuse
• emotion regulation
• maltreatment
• physical abuse
• posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• sexual abuse
• sexual assault

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the VCU students for making this study a success, as well as the many VCU faculty, students, and staff who contributed to the design and implementation of the project.

Funding

This study was funded by a grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism awarded to Dr. Berenz (1K99AA022385). Dr. Berenz is currently supported by a grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (4R00AA022385). Dr. Amstadter is supported by a NARSAD Independent Investigator Award from the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, and from NIH grants: K02AA023239, R01AA020179, P60MD002256, and MH081056-01S1. Spit for Science: The VCU Student Survey has been supported by Virginia Commonwealth University, P20 AA107828, R37AA011408, K02AA018755, and P50 AA022537 from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and UL1RR031990 from the National Center for Research Resources and National Institutes of Health Roadmap for Medical Research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

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 individual participants included in the study.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by a grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism awarded to Dr. Berenz (1K99AA022385). Dr. Berenz is currently supported by a grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (4R00AA022385). Dr. Amstadter is supported by a NARSAD Independent Investigator Award from the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, and from NIH grants: K02AA023239, R01AA020179, P60MD002256, and MH081056-01S1. Spit for Science: The VCU Student Survey has been supported by Virginia Commonwealth University, P20 AA107828, R37AA011408, K02AA018755, and P50 AA022537 from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and UL1RR031990 from the National Center for Research Resources and National Institutes of Health Roadmap for Medical Research.