부산대학교 도서관

Background: When caregivers experience childhood maltreatment, their children may bear increased risk for maltreatment as well. Teachers have frequent opportunities to observe child behavior in the classroom and are likely to notice symptoms of maltreatment and have opportunities to intervene. Thus, teacher identification of PTSD may serve an important preventive purpose and may mitigate risk for children who experience any form of maltreatment early in life. Objective: The present study utilized secondary data from the LONGSCAN consortium to examine caregiver history of childhood maltreatment as a moderator of the association among teacher identification of student PTSD symptomology and child-reported PTSD symptomology for children at risk for maltreatment (n = 872). Method: Children and adolescents completed the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children to assess the severity of PTSD. The Caregiver's History of Loss and Victimization measure identified retrospective reports of caregiver history of childhood maltreatment. The Teacher Report Form was used to assess teachers' observations of children's behaviors in the classroom. Results: Caregiver history of childhood maltreatment moderated the association between teacher identification of child internalizing behaviors and PTSD symptomology severity at age 12. Simple slope analyses indicated that the association among teacher and child report of symptomology was stronger if the child's caregiver experienced childhood maltreatment than if caregivers were not maltreated as children. Conclusions: Results illustrate the importance of teacher training in basic mental health symptomology identification in the classroom, as well as mental health services for caregivers with a history of maltreatment, to break the cycle of childhood maltreatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]