The Role of Childhood Maltreatment and Self-Regulatory Processes on Inflammation, Depressive Symptoms, and Grief Symptoms During Spousal Bereavement
| dc.contributor.advisor | Fagundes, Christopher P | |
| dc.creator | Chen, Michelle Ai-Lien | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2020-08-14T18:35:02Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2020-08-14T18:35:02Z | |
| dc.date.created | 2020-08 | |
| dc.date.issued | 2020-08-13 | |
| dc.date.submitted | August 2020 | |
| dc.date.updated | 2020-08-14T18:35:02Z | |
| dc.description.abstract | Early life adversity, such as childhood maltreatment, promotes physiological and physical dysregulation throughout the lifespan, increasing vulnerability to negative health outcomes. The stress associated with childhood maltreatment, which includes physical abuse, physical neglect, emotional abuse, emotional neglect, and sexual abuse inflicted by an older person or an adult towards a child, promotes an exaggerated physiological and psychological response to threats. Specifically, early life stress causes increases in chronic inflammation, which is associated with chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease and cancer. In addition to increased physiological dysregulation (i.e., elevated inflammation), childhood maltreatment is associated with psychological dysregulation (i.e., depression), which may further contribute to disease later in life. Given the impact that early life adversity has on adverse health outcomes, it is important to identify how childhood maltreatment affects physiological and psychological dysregulation, especially for populations facing stress. Spousal bereavement ranks as the most stressful life event and is associated with elevated inflammation, depressive symptoms, and grief symptoms. Understanding how childhood maltreatment interacts with psychological and physiological mechanisms to predict inflammation, depressive symptoms, and grief symptoms will provide a useful direction in forecasting physical and mental health outcomes among a highly stressed, bereaved population. Individual differences in vagally-mediated heart rate variability, an index of an individual’s self-regulatory ability, may partially explain the relationship between childhood maltreatment and poor physiological (i.e., elevated inflammation) and psychological dysregulation (i.e., depression and grief) among a highly stressed population. Examining changes in inflammation, depressive symptoms, and grief symptoms throughout the bereavement experience may be prognostic of individuals who are more vulnerable to adverse health outcomes following the death of a spouse. Given the role that self-regulation may have in moderating the relationships between childhood maltreatment and inflammation, depressive symptoms, and grief severity, different emotion regulation strategies could also moderate these relationships. Thus, identifying the risk and resilience factors that underlie how childhood maltreatment impacts physiological and psychological dysregulation can be an influential factor in forecasting physical and mental outcomes among a highly stressed, bereaved population. | |
| dc.format.mimetype | application/pdf | |
| dc.identifier.citation | Chen, Michelle Ai-Lien. "The Role of Childhood Maltreatment and Self-Regulatory Processes on Inflammation, Depressive Symptoms, and Grief Symptoms During Spousal Bereavement." (2020) Master’s Thesis, Rice University. <a href="https://hdl.handle.net/1911/109204">https://hdl.handle.net/1911/109204</a>. | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1911/109204 | |
| dc.language.iso | eng | |
| dc.rights | Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise indicated. Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce the work beyond the bounds of fair use or other exemptions to copyright law must be obtained from the copyright holder. | |
| dc.subject | childhood maltreatment | |
| dc.subject | stress | |
| dc.subject | self-regulatory processes | |
| dc.subject | health | |
| dc.title | The Role of Childhood Maltreatment and Self-Regulatory Processes on Inflammation, Depressive Symptoms, and Grief Symptoms During Spousal Bereavement | |
| dc.type | Thesis | |
| dc.type.material | Text | |
| thesis.degree.department | Psychology | |
| thesis.degree.discipline | Social Sciences | |
| thesis.degree.grantor | Rice University | |
| thesis.degree.level | Masters | |
| thesis.degree.name | Master of Arts |
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