TITLE:
Is Complicated Birth One of the Early Childhood Traumas? A Framework for Birthing Trauma, Its Impacts, and Proliferation
AUTHORS:
Ibrahim A. Kira, Linda Lewandowski, Lisa Chiodo, Andreas Laddis
KEYWORDS:
Early Childhood Traumas, Developmentally-Based Trauma Framework (DBTF), Neurocognitive Functioning, Trauma Proliferation, Existential Annihilation Anxiety
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.7 No.3,
March
30,
2016
ABSTRACT: Objective:
Birthing trauma (BT) (i.e., complicated birth) is an early life complex trauma
for the baby and mother that never been empirically examined or considered
within the trauma field as a traumatic stressor for the newborn. The goal of
current study is to examine its effects on mental health and neurocognitive
functioning and explore its proliferation to other life traumas. Method:
Current study utilizes a novel developmental-based trauma framework (DBTF) to
empirically test assumptions about some of its negative delayed psychosocial
and neurocognitive effects in ado-lescents, and the dynamics of its
proliferation to other potentially dependent traumas. A commu-nity sample of
410 African American and Iraqi adolescents have been administered measures of
traumas (CTS), birthing trauma, PTSD, complex PTSD (CTD), existential anxiety
and WISC IV. We controlled for the numerous cumulative stressors and traumas
that could potentially be playing a role. .Results: Correlations and path
analyses and multigroup invariance found that BT predicted elevated symptoms of
post-trauma spectrum disorders, reduced IQ scores, and increased discre-pancy
IQ index. These relationships were strongly invariant across gender and
cultural groups. BT directly predicted other early childhood traumas, and
indirectly all other life trauma types, which support BT proliferation
hypothesis. These relationships were strongly invariant across gender.
Conclusion: Screening for Birthing Trauma as one of the serious early childhood
trauma is impor-tant. Early intervention with BT victims to provide early
psychological and educational help and prevent proliferation dynamics is
important.