Unravelling trauma and stress: Developmental and multilevel insights into risk and resilience
Chair(s): Fabiola Silletti & Pasquale Musso * (University of Bari Aldo Moro, Italy)
This symposium adopts a multilevel perspective to examine how trauma and stress contribute to psychopathological outcomes across key developmental transitions, from early adolescence to adulthood. By considering individual, relational, and contextual factors, our four studies illuminate not only the vulnerabilities stemming from adversity but also the mechanisms that foster resilience. The first study investigates how family-related stressful life events (e.g., caregiver separation), shape externalizing behaviors (e.g., delinquency) over time in a diverse sample of youth, highlighting the potential moderating role of social support from both family members and peers. The second study focuses on the long-term mental health repercussions of trauma exposure in young adults, examining depression, anxiety, and somatic symptoms, and underscoring how social and environmental resilience factors can mitigate these outcomes. The third study addresses perinatal women’s experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic, exploring how pandemic-related stress and Long-COVID symptoms affect maternal depression and anxiety, and emphasizing the buffering roles of partner support and maternal self-efficacy. The final study explores the relationship between Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and eating disorders in young adulthood, centering on the roles of mentalization and epistemic trust as potential mediators of this association.
Together, these contributions offer a deeper understanding of the complex interplay among stress, trauma, and resilience and shed light on how risk and protective factors evolve across developmental stages. The collaboration of nine institutions across Europe and North America provides a diverse cultural lens on mental health, enhancing the symposium’s relevance to global challenges. By integrating these findings, we highlight crucial directions for prevention, intervention, and policy to address mental health disparities in varied populations.
Presentations of the Symposium
Stressful Life Events and Youth Delinquency: Exploring Family and Peer Support as Mediators or Moderators in a Longitudinal, Diverse Sample
Pasquale Musso1, Manuel Eisner2, Denis Ribeaud3, Lilly Shanahan3, Cristian Stifano1, Rosalinda Cassibba1
1Department of Education, Psychology, Communication, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy, 2Violence Research Center, Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK; Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, 3Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
Evidence suggests that stressful life events are linked to externalizing problems, with social support potentially buffering these risks. However, many existing studies focus narrowly on childhood, rely on ethnically homogeneous samples, consider only a single source of social support (e.g., parents or peers), and rarely examine the mediating role of perceived social support in the relationship between stressful events and externalizing problems. To address these gaps, this longitudinal study investigated the reciprocal association between stressful life events – particularly family strain (e.g., caregiver separation) – and externalizing behaviors (i.e., delinquency) from early adolescence through emerging adulthood. It also explored whether perceived social support from both family and peers mediates or moderates these links, using an ethnically diverse sample (N = 1523), and considered various control variables (gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and internalizing problems) to evaluate possible subgroup differences. Self-reported measures of stressful life events, externalizing problems, and social support were collected at ages 13, 15, 17, and 20. Using multigroup cross-lagged mediation models in Mplus 7, we found that family strain at age 13 predicted delinquency at age 15 among females, but not among males. For males, both family and peer support moderated the relationship between family strain at 15 years and delinquency at age 17, indicating that higher levels of perceived support attenuated the impact of family strain. No mediation effects emerged. These findings deepen our understanding of the etiology of externalizing problems and offer insights into when, for whom, and how the risk of delinquency – recognized worldwide as a major public health concern—can be mitigated.
Exposure to trauma in young adults and multisystemic resilience: the aftermath and the mental health impact.
Christina Koretsidou1, Nearchou Finiki1, Clodagh Flinn1, Aine French1, Fabiola Silletti2
1School of Psychology, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland., 2Department of Education, Psychology, Communication, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy
The aftermath after trauma exposure has been linked to adverse mental health outcomes in individuals across different developmental stages, including children, adolescents, and young adults. However, the measurement of posttraumatic symptoms usually captures the timeframe immediately preceding the timepoint of measurement. Thus, our knowledge of the mental health impact of historical trauma or trauma that was central to an individual’s life is limited. Resilience has been extensively examined following trauma exposure, yet evidence on resilience informed by a multisystemic framework including risk and protective factors nested in the natural environment and community is very limited. The aim of this research was to investigate the role of social and environmental factors in mental health outcomes in the context of trauma exposure. A sample of young adults (18-29 years old) in the Republic of Ireland (N=159) completed a series of standardized tools assessing trauma exposure, resilience factors (e.g. neighborhood violence, cohesion, community resilience), and mental health outcomes (e.g. depression, anxiety, somatic symptoms). A series of hierarchical regression models revealed that trauma exposure as measured by how central it is in a young person’s life and identity negatively predicts depression, somatic symptoms, and anxiety. Resilience factors demonstrated a contributing predictive role above and beyond the negative effect of trauma only in depression. These findings highlight the importance of considering trauma in the unique context of each mental health outcome. It also shows that the extent to which the young individual perceives the magnitude of trauma may go beyond any protective factors.
COVID-19 Links to Maternal Anxiety and Depression: The Roles of Long-COVID, Self-Efficacy, and Partner Support
Fabiola Silletti1, Amanda Koire2, Candice Ma3, Hung-Chu Lin4, Leena Mittal2, Joshua L. Roffman5, Carmina Erdei6, Cindy H. Liu7
1Department of Education, Psychology, Communication, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, BA, Italy; Department of Pediatrics, Division of Newborn Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA, 2Department of Psychiatry, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA, 3Department of Pediatrics, Division of Newborn Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA, 4Department of Pediatrics, Division of Newborn Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Psychology, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, LA, USA, 5Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA, 6Department of Pediatrics, Division of Newborn Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA, 7Department of Pediatrics, Division of Newborn Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Psychiatry, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
Perinatal women were particularly impacted during the pandemic, with documented consequences for both maternal and infant well-being. This study investigated the longitudinal relationships between COVID-19-related experiences during the peripartum period and women's depression and anxiety symptoms at long-term follow-up. We examined the moderating role of Long-COVID for the first time, along with perceived partner support and maternal self-efficacy. A sample of 190 US perinatal women completed surveys from May 21, 2020, to September 15, 2021 (T1), and again between December 14, 2022, and February 14, 2024 (T2). The survey assessed COVID-19-related experiences, mental health, Long-COVID, maternal self-efficacy, partner support, and life events. Results revealed that anxiety was associated with both Long-COVID and decreased partner support, while both depression and anxiety were linked to lower self-efficacy. A larger number of COVID-19-related experiences during the peripartum period was associated with higher levels of later depression and anxiety symptoms. Long-COVID exacerbated these links, while partner support buffered them. Maternal self-efficacy dampened the association between COVID-19-related experiences and subsequent depression, but not anxiety. Findings suggest that COVID-19 has lasting effects on perinatal women’s mental health, with partner support and maternal self-efficacy acting as resilience factors. These results highlight the potential benefit of targeted interventions to enhance these modifiable factors.
Considering the Links between Adverse Childhood Experiences, Mentalization, Epistemic Trust, and Eating Disorders Psychopathology in Young Adulthood
Rima Breidokienė, Danguolė Čekuolienė, Rasa Barkauskienė, Asta Adler
Faculty of Philosophy, Institute of Psychology, Center of Developmental Psychopathology, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) have been increasingly studied as a risk factor and sequelae for eating disorders (ED) symptoms. Fonagy et al. (2015) elaborated views on mentalization in the context of a broader developmental psychopathology approach including ED and conceptualized epistemic trust (ET) as an individual’s capacity to acquire new knowledge that supports resilient social functioning. These ideas have received support from theoretical and clinical perspectives. However, empirical links among these variables have not yet been explored. The main goal of this study was to give a deeper look into the associations among ACEs, mentalization, epistemic trust, and ED.
A representative sample of 800 Lithuanian young adults (48.75% female, Mage = 24.46, SD = 3.77). Instruments included the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire, Adverse Childhood Experiences Questionnaire, Mentalization Scale, and Epistemic Trust, Mistrust, and Credulity Questionnaire.
The results of the total sample showed that ACEs exerted both direct and indirect effects on the severity of ED symptoms by negatively affecting self-mentalizing and increasing epistemic mistrust. In turn, epistemic mistrust acted as a mediator, partially explaining the link between ACEs and eating psychopathology. Results showed certain differences in the interplay of the examined variables in men and women groups. Only in males, epistemic mistrust did not mediate the relationship between ACEs and ED symptoms.
Results of the current study shed new light on two important facets in the link between childhood maltreatment and eating psychopathology - mentalization and ET. Results indicate that while ACEs are associated with ED in men, this link may operate through self-mentalizing and not through epistemic mistrust. Thus, evaluation of the role of mentalization and epistemic trust/mistrust in psychotherapy for men and women ED remain among the most promising directions for the future studies.
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